Asimov's SF, March 2007

by Dell Magazine Authors

  When Drake made no reply to his observation, Gilbert said: “Will you stay on the Fortune while we make our way to my pleasant harbor, Captain Drake? I'll be happy to supply you with a good meal."

  "I'd rather not dine well while my men are on short rations,” Drake told him, although he knew few ships’ masters who would have been so squeamish. “I'll go back to the Golden Hind and follow you to your harbor. Once we're all able to come ashore and enjoy a feast, I'll be more than happy to join you, and to meet Doctor Muffet."

  "Splendid!” said Gilbert, enthusiastically. “It will give us all great pleasure to entertain guests, and to receive news of home. It will be a fine night, from every point of view!"

  Except, thought Drake, from the viewpoint of the man who hoped to be this isle's discoverer, and who hoped to redeem his battered reputation by claiming it for England and Queen Jane. It was not much consolation to him that the island Sir Humphrey Gilbert called Tahiti was exactly where he had expected to find an island—which is to say, exactly where poor Raleigh had marked it on the map he had sketched while the Queen Jane was orbiting the earth. In itself, that could not prove that everything else Drake had experienced in the course of the ethership's journey had been real. It still remained a possibility—as he had to admit even to himself—that his memories of being seized by the Selenite horde and dispatched by cosmic cannon to the center of the universe, where insects and sea-slugs ruled supreme over a hitherto-unimaginable Creation, were the produce of some remarkable delusion.

  "Yes, Sir Humphrey,” he said to Gilbert. “I'm sure that my crewmen will rejoice in the opportunity."

  * * * *

  3

  When Drake saw that Humphrey Gilbert had three smaller ships anchored in the natural harbor where he had constructed his “base,” he realized that the expedition that had discovered Tahiti must have been large and well-planned. When he was able to judge the extent of the constructions that the Englishmen had erected around the bay he realized, too, that their settlement here was no temporary affair, intended merely as a barracks where men might be housed until they had made repairs and gathered provisions for a long journey home. This really was a colony—and one that had been built from the outset with a view to defense, for the Englishmen's enclave was surrounded by a stout stockade, with sentry posts and loopholes for muskets.

  Although there were several buildings within the central stockade that seemed big enough to serve as dormitories for a ship's crew, there was also a surprisingly large number of smaller huts. From the Golden Hind's anchorage, Drake could see with the aid of his telescope that the great majority of the Englishmen were lodged in the huts, many of them having apparently coupled themselves with women of the same kind as the men he had seen on the Fortune. It was evident that not all of the island's tribesmen were hostile, but there was no way for Drake to estimate what the total population might be, or what proportion of that total could be counted friendly.

  Drake was careful to divide his men into two parties, and to explain his reasons for doing so. “There's some kind of trouble brewing outside that stockade, lads,” he told them, having assembled them on deck. “Gilbert has promised us a feast tonight, but he's fearful, and was exceedingly glad to see an English ship so well-armed as the Hind. The men who remain on board tonight will eat as well as those who go ashore, and there'll be plenty of opportunity to trade places, but the ship must be guarded very carefully, and its supplies of black powder kept safe. We'll take no guns with us tonight, but I want every man who goes ashore to keep his eyes and ears open and his wits about him. Find out everything you can about the situation here. If we have to defend ourselves, or our fellows ashore, I need to know how many enemies we're likely to face, and what sort."

  "Will you try to make friends with the natives, Captain?” Hammond asked, not so much for his own benefit as to give Drake the opportunity to inform his crew of a matter of policy.

  "As ever, Ned,” Drake said. “It's always best to make allies instead of enemies, if we can—and if we're forced to face enemies in the end, it's best to do so with allies by our side."

  When the shore party landed and moved through the settlement, Drake was struck by the extent and complexity of the marketplace that had been established within the stockade. He was not surprised to see that the Englishmen had established a forge and a glass manufactory as well as a carpentry shop, but he was astonished to see a brewery, a bath-house, and a candle-factory, and by the industry that was in process in all these places. Relations between the Englishmen and the natives appeared entirely harmonious on this side of the defensive wall, but he knew how unlikely it was that the wall was maintained merely to keep up appearances.

  Gilbert did not hurry his guests as he led them through the town. He took pleasure in allowing Drake to savor his achievements. Gilbert's own house was undoubtedly the most finely crafted in the settlement, but it was not the largest. When the outbuildings crowded around its larger neighbor were taken into account, Gilbert's dwelling was somewhat overshadowed.

  "That's Doctor Muffet's house,” Gilbert said, in response to Drake's inquisitive stare. “The accessory buildings are his specimen-houses and his laboratory."

  All physicians, Drake knew, could be reckoned alchemists of a sort—Paracelsians more than most—but there were few who kept laboratories. On the other hand, a herbalist must surely be able to find all kinds of exotic specimens in a place as foreign as this, whose properties might warrant careful examination. Drake had had an opportunity while the Hind was laid up in Peru to appreciate the extent to which the local vegetation differed from what he had seen on his Caribbean adventures, let alone the forests and meadows of England. He recalled, as that thought crossed his mind, that Muffet was one of the few Europeans to have made a study of imported silkworm cocoons, and wondered if there might be more factories here than he had so far seen.

  "The doctor and his daughter will join us for dinner, of course, and my chaplain, too,” Gilbert said. “How many of your officers will be joining us?"

  "Mr. Hammond and Mr. Ashley, if that suits you, Sir Humphrey,” Drake said, “and my kinsman Martin Lyle, if that is also agreeable."

  "Of course,” Gilbert said, as he ushered Drake over the threshold of his house. It had only a single story, but its shallow-pitched roof had a number of storage attics. The ground floor had a dining-room that was almost a banqueting-hall, a reception-room, three bedrooms, and a kitchen, into which a cast-iron stove had been transferred from one of the smaller vessels in Gilbert's fleet,

  "I would be honored if you would accept my hospitality, Captain Drake,” Gilbert said. “I'll find quarters for your mates with their peers among my own men, and for your crewmen with theirs. I think you'll all find the accommodations comfortable, after such a long time at sea. How long have you been voyaging, exactly?"

  "It's thirteen months since we left England,” Drake told him. “Thirty-seven days since we last spent a night ashore. Did you say just now that Doctor Muffet has his daughter with him?"

  "I did,” Gilbert confirmed, as he invited Drake to sit down on a wicker armchair and offered him a cup of fresh water. “A remarkable thing, I know, but he didn't want to leave her in England while he was away for several years. Her mother's dead. She was only four years old when we set out, but she's seven now. She wasn't the only child on the expedition, although the others had mothers to care for them."

  Drake suppressed the exclamation that sprung immediately to his lips, but could not help making a more considered observation. “Then this was a colonial enterprise!” he said. “But how did you end up here instead of the Virginias?” He accepted the proffered cup of water, and found it extremely sweet by comparison with the dregs of the Golden Hind's barrels.

  "No,” Gilbert said, “it wasn't a colonial expedition in the sense that you mean. The Doctor's associates and servants brought their families with them, though."

  A native servant brought in a huge basket of fruit, from which Gilbert
invited Drake to take his pick. Drake was hesitating between the familiar and the unfamiliar when a movement in the doorway caught his eye. It was a blonde girl-child in a cornflower-blue dress. Drake had not seen her like for a very long time.

  "Come in, Patience,” said Gilbert. “Captain Drake was just asking about you. Is your father coming?"

  "Ten minutes, he said,” the girl replied, staring at Drake with a frankness that would have been educated out of a girl her age in England.

  "Captain Drake is one of the most famous sailors in England,” Gilbert told the girl. “There's no Englishman the Spaniards fear more, or the Cimaroons like better."

  "What's a Cimaroon?” the girl asked.

  Gilbert merely laughed, so Drake took it upon himself to explain. “A descendant of runaway slaves,” he said. “The Spaniards and the Portuguese imported large numbers of Africans to work in their American colonies, but there's a whole continent into which the rebels among them may run away, and many do. Those that have settled among the Indians become embroiled in local tribal conflicts but they remain a hybrid race, distinctive enough for me to be able to unite them. I rallied them by means of the argument that England, as the great rival of their worst enemy, was potentially their best friend. Sir Humphrey flatters me by calling me famous, though. Even in England, there are some who reckon me a dangerous pirate, ever likely to precipitate open warfare between England and Spain."

  "Is that why the queen sent you away in Master Dee's ethership, and afterward called you mad?” the little girl asked, taking her frankness to a remarkable and rather distressing limit.

  "Perhaps it is,” Drake replied, more honestly than he could have wished. He looked at Gilbert, and added: “It was polite of you not to mention that circumstance before. I had begun to wonder whether you knew it."

  "You're among friends here,” Gilbert was quick to say. “We know that you were not mad."

  Drake's astonishment increased by a further increment. “Do you, indeed?” he said. “You know better than I do, then.” What he was thinking, though, was that if Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Thomas Muffet knew that he was not mad, it could not have been chance that had brought them here. He had told Hammond that no one else could possibly know about the island whose position Walter Raleigh had marked, but that was not strictly true. Tom Digges might know, even though he claimed—or at least pretended—that everything he had experienced outside the earth had been a dream. John Field might know too—but the more important possibility was that John Dee might have had the information from Tom Digges. Dee was a hero to every master mariner in England, even those from whose acquaintance he had drifted apart, and if he had said to anyone that there was a sizeable island at approximately seventeen degrees south and somewhere near one hundred and fifty degrees west, they would have trusted him, even if they knew that he had read it in the stars.

  "We're very glad to see you here, Captain Drake,” Gilbert assured him, “whatever your commission may have been when you left home. If, perchance, you're so far from home because you no longer feel entirely welcome there, you'd be very welcome to make a home here, temporarily or permanently."

  "Permanently!” Drake repeated, in surprise. “Do you intend to stay here permanently, then, though you refuse to call your settlement a colony and fear a native uprising?"

  "Not I,” Gilbert replied, “but..."

  "But there are some among us who might, if we're granted leave,” said a new voice. Another person had appeared in the doorway through which the blonde-haired girl had come. “I'm Thomas Muffet, physician,” the newcomer continued. “I have a certain reputation for madness myself, among the Galenists of the Royal College, but I can assure you that I'm as sane as you are, Captain Drake.” He extended his hand to Drake, who shook it willingly.

  "I know your name,” Drake said, “and I'm acquainted with wiser people than I who'd gladly swear to your sanity, including Philip Sidney and his sister."

  "Good friends,” Muffet said. “Have you news of them?"

  Drake shook his head, and Gilbert put in: “Captain Drake has been away from England thirteen months."

  Muffet frowned. “Were you delayed?” he asked.

  Gilbert was quick to speak again, saying: “The captain wasn't commissioned to follow us, Doctor. I may be reading the situation wrongly, for I was hesitant to speak openly too soon, but I'd guess that he left home with the ostensible purpose of harassing the Spaniards and the Portuguese up and down the coasts of South America, and that his expedition to Tahiti was something of a private venture. I think he's more than a little disappointed, as well as surprised, to find us here.” Gilbert had the grace to seem slightly discomfited as he spelled this out.

  "You're right,” Drake conceded, readily enough. “I had reason to believe that this island, and the others in its group, were here, but I was very wary of confessing those reasons to others in England."

  "You saw them from the ethership, of course,” said Muffet. “When your other testimony was so cruelly discounted, you dared not declare your intention of confirming what you had seen as a formal objective of your voyage. I understand—indeed, I understand perfectly, as you'll know soon enough."

  "I hadn't expected to be anticipated,” Drake said. “You must have acted very quickly indeed, to fit out an expedition on this scale within months—perhaps weeks—of the ethership's destruction. I confess that I can't understand what kind of game Master Dee is playing."

  "Dee?” said Muffet. “What has Dee...?” He stopped abruptly, perhaps in response to a signal from Gilbert that Drake had not been able to see.

  Gilbert made haste to change the subject, perhaps to give Muffet some hint of the reason for his caution. “Captain Drake's vessel, the Golden Hind, is uncommonly well-armed,” he said. “We'll be grateful of that, Doctor, if relations with the islanders continue to deteriorate. If we can persuade him to stay for a while, his presence will surely make us secure. He might be invaluable to us in other ways too, given his reputation as a diplomat. If he can win over the Tahitians as he won over the Panamanian Cimaroons, we may yet achieve the state of harmony that was our first ambition. I don't think his men will take it too hard if they have to rest up here for a while—they'll find our little paradise very comfortable."

  Drake almost frowned then, perceiving a slight hint of threat in the tradesman's final comment, but he dismissed the suspicion along with the expression. “If I can be of service to you,” he said, as smoothly as he could, “I'll be glad of the opportunity. I can stay for a month, at least."

  "I hope you'll stay a great deal longer than that,” Muffet said, in spite of any gesture Gilbert might have made. “I can think of no one better to serve as our ambassador to England, when the time comes to explain to the queen and her council exactly what we've been doing here."

  "Indeed,” Drake said. “What have you been doing here, Doctor Muffet?"

  "Nothing less than beginning a revolution in medicine, Captain Drake,” Muffet said. “After three thousand years of my forerunners groping in the dark, I believe I've found the key to the health, happiness, and future advancement of humankind."

  Doctor Muffet was obviously a Paracelsian in more ways than one; the founder of the school had been renowned for his immodesty. Drake could not help raising his eyebrows at the scope of the claim, but he refused to assume that Thomas Muffet was mad; he knew full well that the universe contained far stranger things than he had ever been able to imagine in his youth. “That's excellent news,” he murmured. He took a fruit he did not know from the basket and peered at it. “Is this good for scurvy?” he asked.

  "Not as specific as some,” Muffet said, “but you need have no fear of any symptoms of that sort while you are here. You'll find that breadfruit quite palatable, I think, and much other local produce too. There'll be roast pork for dinner; the local swine are delicate creatures by comparison with our wild boar, but they're succulent. There'll be fresh eggs, too. You'll have time enough to sample new fish and fruit
by the dozen, if not by the hundred."

  "May I have another cup of water?” Drake asked. “And might I ask you to send some casks of water and baskets of fruit out to the ship without delay, for the benefit of the watchmen who must remain aboard?"

  "It's already done,” said Muffet. “Patience, will you fetch the captain another cup of water, please."

  "Yes, father,” said the little girl, who seemed far meeker in the presence of her parent than she had before.

  "If you have men sickening with scurvy, or anything else,” Muffet said, “you'd best bring them ashore as soon as it's convenient. I'll be glad to administer what treatments I can. I think you might be surprised by the efficacy of my medicines. Do you have any sickness yourself ?"

  "Nothing that a warm bath wouldn't cure,” Drake said.

  "I'll have the servants prepare one,” Gilbert was quick to say. “I can have your clothes washed too, and I'll send for a barber."

  "That's very kind,” Drake said. “Will there still be time for me to see your laboratory before dinner, Doctor Muffet?"

  Yet again, Gilbert did not seem overly enthusiastic about that prospect, but the doctor smiled, as if he had been paid a great compliment. “Certainly,” he said. “We'll make such time as we may need. I think you'll find my work exciting, Captain Drake—in fact, I'm certain of it."

  Drake could not help wondering exactly what the source of that certainty was. It was one thing, he thought, for a man like Muffet not to credit the rumor that he was as mad as a March hare, but quite another for him to be enthusiastic to display his wondrous wares to a man who was—setting all issues of patriotism and derring-do aside—most famous of all for the prodigious quality of his thievery.