Classic Fiction

by Hal Clement

  “Now others of my people have come. They are riding in a great thing that they made; you haven’t any words for it, since I never gave them to Nick’s people and I don’t think Swift’s have any such things. It was something we made, as you make a bucket or a spear, which is able to carry us from one place to another; for the place from which I came is so far away that no one could ever walk the distance, and is far above so that only a floater could even go in the right direction. The people who came were going to be able to come and go in this machine, so that they could bring things like better tools to all of you, taking perhaps things you were willing to give in exchange. However, the machine did not work quite properly; it was like a spear with a cracked head. It came down to where you live, but we found that it could not float back up again. My people cannot live outside it, so they aren’t able to fix it. We need help, from Nick’s people and, if you will give it, from yours as well. If you can find this machine in which my friends are caught, and learn from me how to fix it, they will be able to go back up once more and bring things for you all; if you can’t or won’t, my people will die here, and there will not even be knowledge for you—for some day I will die, too, you know.

  “I want you to take this message to Swift, and then, if he will let you, come back with his answer. I would like him and all his people to help hunt for the machine; and when it is found, Swift’s people and Nick’s can help in fixing it. There won’t need to be any more fighting. Will you do that?”

  Nick had given this talk exactly as it came, so far as his knowledge of Swift’s language permitted. The scout was silent for half a minute or so at the end. He was still holding his spears firmly, but Raeker felt that his attitude with them was a trifle less aggressive. It may have been wishful thinking, of course; human beings are as prone to believe the things they wish were true as Drommians are to believe what occurs to them first.

  Then the scout began asking questions, and Raeker’s estimate of his intelligence went up several notches; he had been inclined to dismiss the fellow as a typical savage.

  “Since you know what is wrong with your friends and their machine, you must be able to talk to them some way.”

  “Yes, we . . . I can talk to them.”

  “Then how is it you need to look for them? Why can’t they tell you where they are?”

  “They don’t know. They came down to a place they had never seen before, and floated on a lake for five days. Last night they drifted down a river. They were at the bottom, and couldn’t see where they were going; and anyway they didn’t know the country—as I said, they never saw it before. The river is gone now, and they can see around, but that does no good.”

  “If you can hear them talk, why can’t you go to them anyway? I can find anything I can hear.”

  “We talk with machines, just as we travel. The machines make a sort of noise which can only be heard by another machine, but which travels very much farther than a voice. Their machine can talk to one in the place where I came from, and then that one can talk to me; but it is so far away that it can’t tell exactly where either of us is. All we can do is let them tell us what sort of country they can see; then I can tell you, and you can start hunting.”

  “You don’t even know how far away they are, then.”

  “Not exactly. We’re pretty sure it’s not very far—not more than two or three days’ walk, and probably less. When you start looking for them we can have them turn on their brightest lights, like these”—the robot’s spots flamed briefly—“and you’ll be able to see them from a long distance. They’ll have some lights on anyway, as a matter of fact.”

  The cave dweller thought for another minute or so, then shifted the grip on his spears to “trail.”

  “I will give your words to Swift, and if he has words for you they will be brought. Will you stay here?”

  The question made Raeker a trifle uneasy, but he saw no alternative to answering “yes.” Then another point occurred to him.

  “If we did not stay here, would it take you long to find us?” he asked. “We noticed that you got to this side of the river and into sight of our group much more quickly than we had expected. Did you have some means of crossing the river before day?”

  “No,” the other replied with rather surprising frankness. “The river bends north not far inland from the place where you walked through it and goes in that direction for a good number of miles. A number of us were sent along it, with orders to stop at various points, cross as soon as it dried up, and walk toward the sea to find traces of you.”

  “Then others presumably crossed our trail—all those who were stationed farther south—and located us.”

  “No doubt. They may be watching now, or they may have seen you attack me and gone off to tell Swift.”

  “You knew about the bend in the river. Your people are familiar with the country this far from your caves?”

  “We have never hunted here. Naturally, anyone can tell which way a river is going to flow and where there are likely to be hills and valleys.”

  “What my people call an eye for country. I see. Thank you; you had better go on and give the message to Swift before he arrives with another crowd of spears to avenge the attack on one of his men.”

  “All right. Will you answer one question for me first? Sometimes you say T and sometimes ‘we’ even when you obviously don’t mean yourself and these people here. Why is that? Is there more than one of you inside that thing?”

  Nick did not translate this question; he answered it himself.

  “The teacher has always talked that way,” he said. “We’ve sometimes wondered about it, too; but when we asked him, he didn’t explain—just said it wasn’t important yet. Maybe Swift can figure it out.” Nick saw no harm in what he would have called psychology if he had known the word.

  “Maybe.” The scout started south without another word, and the rest of the group, who had long since broken their circle and gathered around the teacher, watched him go.

  “That sounded good, Dr. Raeker. Should we keep the spotlights on just in case, from now on?” Easy Rich’s voice broke the silence.

  “I wouldn’t, just yet,” Raeker said thoughtfully. “I wish I could be sure I wanted Swift to find you, instead of merely wanting to keep him from attacking us.”

  “What?” Aminadabarlee’s voice was shriller, and much louder, even than usual. “Are you admitting that you are using my son as bait to keep those savages away from your little pet project down there? That you regard those ridiculously-shaped natives as more important than a civilized being, simply because you’ve been training them for a few years? I have heard that human beings were cold-blooded, and scientists even more so than the general run, but I would never have believed this even of human beings. This is the absolute limit. Councilor Rich, I must ask your indulgence for the loan of our speedster; I am going to Dromm and start our own rescue work. I have trusted you men too long. I am through with that—and so is the rest of the galaxy!”

  “Excuse me, sir.” Raeker had come to have a slightly better grasp of the problem the Drommian represented. “Perhaps, if you do not trust me, you will at least listen to Councilor Rich, whose daughter is in the same situation as your son. He may point out to you that the ‘ridiculous natives’ whose safety I have in mind are the only beings in the universe in a position, or nearly in a position, to rescue those children; and he may have noticed that I did not tell the savage even the little I heard of Easy and ’Mina’s description of the country around them. I am sure we will appreciate your planet’s help, but do you think it will possibly come in time? Before the human girl is permanently injured by extra gravity, and your son has exceeded your race’s time limit under vitamin and oxygen deficiency? I am not asking these questions to hurt you, but in an effort to get the best help you can give. If there is anything more you can do than keep your son’s courage up by staying where he can see and hear you, please let us know.” Rich’s face was visible behind the Drommian’s
in the jury-rigged vision screen, and Raeker saw the human diplomat give a nod and an instantly suppressed smile of approval. He could think of nothing to add to his speech, and wisely remained silent. Before Aminadabarlee found utterance, however, Easy came in with a plea of her own.

  “Don’t be angry with Dr. Raeker, please; ’Mina and I can see what he’s doing, and we like Nick, too.” Raeker wondered how much of this was true; he wasn’t as sure himself as he would like to have been of what he was doing, and the children had not yet talked directly to Nick, though they had been listening to him and his people for a couple of hours. Easy, of course, was a diplomat’s daughter. Raeker had learned by now that her mother had died when she was a year old, and she had traveled with her father ever since. She seemed to be growing into a competent diplomat in her own right. “It doesn’t really matter if Swift does find us,” she went on. “What can he do to hurt us, and why should he want to?”

  “He threatened to use fire on the robot if it didn’t come with him to the cave village,” retorted the Drommian, “and if he does the same to the ’scaphe’s hull when you fail to tell him something he wants to know, you’ll be in some trouble.”

  “But he knew that Fagin didn’t speak his language, and was very patiently teaching it during the three weeks or so it was in his power; why should he be less patient with us? We’re perfectly willing to teach him anything we know, and we can talk to him with less trouble than Dr. Raeker could—at least, there won’t be the delay.”

  A burst of shrill sound from Aminadorneldo followed and, presumably, supported Easy’s argument; Aminadabarlee cooled visibly. Raeker wondered how long it would last. At least, things were safe politically for the moment; he turned his attention back to Tenebra and Nick.

  That worthy had started his group back toward the original meeting place, with two running ahead—the herd had been unprotected quite long enough. Nick himself was standing beside the robot, apparently waiting for comment or instructions. Raeker had none to give, and covered with a question of his own.

  “How about it, Nick? Will he come back? Or more accurately, will Swift go along with us?”

  “You know as well as I.”

  “No, I don’t. You spent a long time with Swift and his people; you know him if any of us do. Was I right in playing on his desire for things we could bring him? I realize he wanted to know about things like fire, but don’t you think it was for what he saw could be done with it?”

  “It seems likely,” admitted Nick, “but I don’t see how it’s possible to be sure of what anyone’s thinking or what he’s going to do.”

  “I don’t either, though some of my people keep trying.” The two started after the rest of the group, scarcely noticing the minor quake that snapped a few of the more brittle plants around them. Nick almost unthinkingly gathered firewood as he went, a habit of years which had developed in the old village after the more accessible fuel near the hilltop had been exhausted. He had quite a stack in his four arms by the time they rejoined the others. This was piled with the rest; the herd was checked and the strays brought back together; and then Fagin called a meeting.

  “You all heard what I told Swift’s man, about the machine which was stranded somewhere here with some of my people in it. If it is not found and fixed shortly, those people will die. You know as well as I that rescue of people in danger is of more importance than almost anything else; and for that reason, we are going to drop all other activities, except those needed actually to stay alive, while we look for that ship.

  “I will give you a description, as completely as possible, of the place where they are. We’ll check all our maps for similarity—I’ll help you there; I can do it faster—and then you’ll go out in pairs to check all likely spots. If we don’t find them, mapping will proceed as rapidly as possible, to the exclusion of all other scientific activities.

  “For the rest of today, Betsey and Nick will take care of camp and herd; search teams will be Oliver and Dorothy, John and Nancy, and Jim and Jane. I will assign an area to each of the teams as soon as the maps have been checked; in the meantime, you might all be gathering firewood for tonight.” The group scattered obediently.

  The geologists in the Vindemiatrix had for some time been matching, or trying to match, Easy’s not too complete description of the bathyscaphe’s environs; they had come up with four or five possible locations, none of which made them really happy. However, when a sixth possibility was finally settled on, Raeker called the exploring teams back to the robot and assigned two of the hopeful areas to each team. These were all in the general direction of the old village, naturally, since the mapping had gone on radially from that point in the two or three years the cartography project had been going. They were all on the nearer side of that region, however, since the men who had done the matching had been influenced by the realization that the ’scaphe must have drifted seaward on the night that it moved. It seemed likely, therefore, that a day to go, a day to explore, and a day to return would suffice for this step of the plan. By that time, Swift might be back with his people, and the rate of search could be stepped up. That was why Nick had been kept behind at the camp site; he might be needed as an interpreter.

  The instructions were heard, the villagers’ own maps were checked, weapons were examined, and the parties set out. Nick and Betsey, standing beside the robot, watched them go; and far away, Raeker finally left the observing room to get some sleep. The diplomats stayed awake, chatting with their children as the latter described the animals which came into sight from time to time. In this relatively dull fashion the rest of the ship’s day, a night, and part of another day were spent, while the search teams plodded sturdily toward their assigned areas.

  This was the twenty-seventh ships’ day since the accident to the bathyscaphe, the afternoon of the seventh day as far as Nick and his people were concerned. The children were understandably impatient; both fathers had to explain again and again how small were their chances of being found at the very beginning of the search. For this day, at least, human and Drommian were in remarkably close accord. In spite of this unity of effort, however, the children tended to spend more and more time at the windows as the day drew on, and from time to time even Easy brought up the subject of using the spotlights to guide the searchers who should be approaching. Her father kept reminding her that Raeker had advised against it; but eventually Raeker withdrew his objection.

  “It’ll make the kid feel more part of the operation,” he said in an aside to Rich, “and I can’t see that there’s much, if any, more chance of Swift’s sighting them than of our own people’s doing it at the moment. Let her play with the lights.”

  Easy happily made full use of the permission, and the bathyscaphe blazed far brighter than daylight—since daylight was utter darkness to human eyes, at Tenebra’s surface. Rich was not too happy about the permission; it seemed to him encouraging the youngster in her unreasonable hope of an early rescue, and he feared the effects of disappointment.

  “Listen to them,” he growled. “Yelling to each other every time something moves within half a mile. If they could see any farther it would be still worse—thank goodness they are using their eyes instead of the photocells of the robot. That’ll last until they get sleepy; then they’ll start again when they wake up—”

  “They should be under water by then,” pointed out Raeker mildly.

  “And drifting again, I suppose. That’s when everything will go to pieces at once, and we ll have a couple of screaming kids who’ll probably start hitting switches right and left in the hope some miracle will bring them home.”

  “I don’t know about the Drommian, but I think you do your daughter a serious injustice,” replied Raeker. “I’ve never known much about kids, but she strikes me as something pretty remarkable for her age. Even if you can’t trust her, you’d better not let her know it.”

  “I realize that, and no one trusts her more than I do,” was the weary answer. “Still, she is only a kid,
and a lot of adults would have cracked before now. I can name one who’s on the edge of it. Listen to them, down there.”

  Aminadorneldo’s piercing tones were echoing from the speaker.

  “There’s something on this side, Easy! Come and see this one.”

  “All right, ’Mina. Just a minute.” Easy’s small form could be seen for an instant on the screen, passing through the control room from one side of the ship to the other, calling as she went, “It’s probably another of those plant-eating things that are about as big as Nick’s people. Remember, the ones we want stand up on end.”

  “This one does. Look!”

  “Where?” Aminadorneldo must have been pointing; there was a moment of silence; then the girl’s voice, “I still don’t see anything; just a lot of bushes.”

  “It looked just like Nick. It stood beside that bush for a moment and looked at us, and then went away. I saw it.”

  “Well, if you were right, it’ll come back. We’ll stand here and watch for it.”

  Rich looked at Raeker and shook his head dismally.

  “That’ll—” he began, but got no farther. His sentence was interrupted by a sudden shriek from the speaker, so shrill that for a moment neither of them could tell who had uttered it.

  VIII

  John and Nancy made steady progress into the west. Their journey so far had not been particularly difficult, though most of it had been made over ground not yet surveyed. They had fought with floaters and other carnivores a reasonable number of times, eaten the fruits of their victories when they felt hungry enough, and talked more or less incessantly. The talk was mostly speculation; they had learned more about the nature of their teacher in the last few days than in the preceding sixteen years, but what they had learned seemed only to give rise to more questions. They were young enough to be surprised at this; hence the steady conversation, which was interrupted only by their reaching a region which seemed to match part of their map.