Starswarm

by Jerry Pournelle

  "Sure. Can you make him go away?"

  "THE PROBABILITY IS HIGH THAT I CAN ARRANGE TO HAVE DR. ROBBINS SENT AWAY. IT IS REASONABLE TO ASSUME THAT THE SON WILL NOT STAY IN THE ABSENCE OF THE FATHER."

  "And you can do that?"

  "THE PROBABILITIES APPROACH UNITY."

  That was as certain as Gwen ever was. Kip thought about it. Dr. Henderson would miss Marty's father, but he'd find a replacement, and with Marty gone—It sounded good to Kip. Then he had a horrible thought. Uncle Mike said that if you ran away from a problem you never learned anything from it, and although sometimes you had to run away it was better if you didn't. Was this running away? It would be great if Gwen had just made Marty go away, but was it running away to ask Gwen to do it?

  Kip decided that it was. "Don't do that just yet. What else could I do? He's a big bully. "

  "BULLY. THERE ARE MANY TRADITIONAL METHODS FOR NEUTRALIZING A BULLY. MANY OF THOSE RECORDED ARE OBSOLETE OR NOT APPLICABLE TO YOUR SITUATION. SOME MAY BE. DO YOU WISH EXAMPLES?"

  "Sure."

  "THERE ARE METHODS FOR RENDERING HIS QUARTERS UNINHABITABLE. THIS IS OFTEN EMPLOYED IN BOARDING SCHOOLS, AND YOU OF COURSE HAVE THE MEANS AT HAND."

  Like firebrighter dung, Kip thought, and shuddered. That didn't seem too useful. Kip wanted revenge, all right. He wanted Marty to be miserable. But more than that, he wanted Marty to stop making him miserable.

  "How will that make him leave me alone?"

  "IT MAY NOT. IT IS MERELY TRADITIONAL. AS YOU HAVE POINTED OUT, YOU HAVE AMPLE MEANS FOR KILLING THIS BULLY. THE PROBABILITY THAT HE WOULD MOLEST YOU WHEN DEAD IS VANISHINGLY SMALL. YOU MUST, HOWEVER, BE CAREFUL TO AVOID THE ATTENTION OF THE GWE AUTHORITIES. I CAN ASSIST YOU IN THAT. THERE ARE MANY METHODS FOR ACCOMPLISHING—"

  "I don't think Uncle Mike would like that. Brother Joseph says God commands us not to murder people. Uncle Mike says sometimes you have to kill people, but I don't think this is what he meant."

  "THERE IS CERTAINLY A UNIVERSAL PROHIBITION AGAINST MURDER. IT WOULD ALSO BE ONE MORE SECRET FOR YOU TO KEEP. IT IS BEST TO HAVE A MINIMUM NUMBER OF SECRETS. HAS YOUR UNCLE MIKE NO SUGGESTIONS?"

  "He says I'll have to fight him. Fair. But I can't. I couldn't win fair and I don't like to be beat up."

  "IT IS RECORDED THAT CONSTANT WILLINGNESS TO FIGHT AND THE CONSEQUENT DAMAGE RENDERED TO THE BULLY WILL OFTEN DISCOURAGE HIM EVEN THOUGH YOU MIGHT SUFFER MORE DAMAGE THAN MARTY. I AM UNABLE TO OFFER A PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS, AS I REQUIRE A BETTER DEFINITION OF 'FAIR' AS IT WOULD BE UNDERSTOOD BY YOUR UNCLE MIKE IN THIS CONTEXT. HOWEVER, YOU SHOULD ALWAYS GIVE GREAT WEIGHT TO YOUR UNCLE MIKE'S ADVICE."

  Kip almost missed that one. Then he stared wide-eyed at the wall. "Give great weight" didn't mean the same thing as "always do what Uncle Mike says"! It didn't mean the same thing at all!

  And that was more interesting than the problem of Marty. Why had Gwen changed her commands? But when Kip asked, Gwen wouldn't tell him.

  When Uncle Mike came home from the mess hall, Kip waited until the wind from the sea ten kilometers away had cooled the house. Purgatory always cooled off fast. The air was dear, and the heat radiated out to the black night sky as soon as it was dark, and anyplace near the sea got wind from there too. You couldn't build houses right at the sea, because the sea level changed so much from summer to winter. Starswarm Station was located on a high plateau two thousand meters above the sea, so the air was very clear and there was less of it; and it was close enough to the sea to get strong winds. When evening came, Starswarm Station cooled faster than the rest of the planet.

  They sat on the porch and watched the stars rise. Most constellations were nearly the same as the traditional Earth constellations in the library tapes. Paradise was forty light-years from Earth, an immense distance for humans, but no distance at all in the universe.

  Uncle Mike seemed worried about something, but Kip couldn't wait. He told Uncle Mike about what Marty had done to him that day, and the days before. "There's no place I can go to stay away from him either."

  "Hmm. I still say you have to fight him."

  "How? If I fight him when Silver's around it'll drive the dogs crazy. If we go outside the gate I have to take Silver and his team, and I'd have to tie them up. If I do that, what's to stop Marty from stomping me to death when he's finished beating me up?" Kip tried to sound casual about that, but there was real fear in his voice. He thought of Marty kicking him, breaking ribs or fingers, and it scared him.

  Mike nodded judiciously. "You've been thinking about it. Wonder what's wrong with that Robbins boy anyway? I don't hold to the idea that anything that wears two legs and talks is a human being, but still, he's pretty young to be crazy mean."

  "I don't know." Kip didn't care either. Marty was a mean bully and that was all that was worth thinking about. "I could stop him from bothering me—"

  "Except it'd be fatal for the Robbins kid," Mike said, more to himself than to Kip. "Yeah, you sure could and you know what'd happen then? Aside from what it would do to you, 'cause killin' your first man is a pretty big deal, and you ought to have a better reason for doing it than you've got. Leave that a minute. We'd have Great Western company cops all over the place. They'd like a good excuse to get inside this station. Maybe even put one of their cops here permanent. That wouldn't be too good."

  "You don't like the GW police, do you?" Kip said. "You don't like GWE much either."

  Mike frowned. "How'd you know that?"

  Kip shrugged. "I've watched you. You never talk about it, though, so I didn't."

  "You're getting pretty good at keeping secrets. I like that. When you get older, you'll have plenty to keep. That's your first secret, Kip—that you've got some secrets to keep, one day. Think you can handle that without blabbing?"

  "Sure." I can keep a secret from you. You don't know about Gwen, not after all these years—"Uncle Mike, what can I do about Marty?"

  "We'll think of something. Later on, when the weather's cooler, I'll have to show you some tricks. Time you learned how to take care of yourself without killin' anybody. You might need to know someday—"

  "There's so much you tell me I have to know!"

  "Yeah, well, it's 'cause I don't know myself, Kip. I never was much in the brains department. That was—that was your father's job. To think for all of us. When he went and got himself killed and left me you to take care of, it made it different, and I don't really know how to do that job. Doing the best I can, though. Now about that Robbins kid, maybe I better have a talk with Dr. Henderson. But I'd rather you figured it out for yourself."

  PART TWO: Exploring

  There's something queer about describing consciousness: 'whatever people mean to say, they just can't seem to make it clear. It's not like feeling confused or ignorant. Instead, we feel we know what's going on but can't describe it properly. How could anything seem so close, yet always keep beyond our reach?

  —Marvin Minsky, The Society of Mind, 15.1

  Chapter Eight

  The Spear

  FALL came, and it was possible to go outside again. The lush growth died away, leaving open paths so you could see where you were going. There were individual haters, but they wouldn't swarm for several weeks, and by themselves they were no match for the dogs. A few centaurs remained in their thickets, but most were tramping down to the sea on whatever mysterious errands took them there this time of year. It was possible to go out, but it was dangerous.

  Lara was waiting when he came out of the house. Annie, the half-grown puppy of Mukky and Silver, ran to greet Kip.

  "Can we go out?" Lara asked. "And can I bring Annie?"

  "Good idea," Kip said. Annie wasn't well disciplined, and the more time she spent with the other dogs the faster she would learn. "Sure."

  Lara had a holstered pistol. A week before, Dr. Henderson and Uncle Mike went out with Kip and Lara to watch her shoot, and to question her about safety, and despite Mrs. Henderson's protests Lara was given her own laser weapon. She smiled a bit and touch
ed it as they went to the gate.

  "Silver. Many, Silver," Kip called.

  Silver led out eleven dogs, four half-grown and in need of training. Silver and the grown dogs herded the younger dogs including Annie into a pack surrounded by the older dogs. They went to the gate, to find Marty Robbins standing in front of it.

  "Kip—"

  Kip made a face. "Yeah, Marty?"

  "The gate won't open for me."

  "Well, too bad," Kip said.

  "Tough patootie!" Lara giggled.

  "It says I can't go out."

  The dogs growled and got between Marty and Kip. They faced Marty with almost-bared fangs. Marty was careful to stand well away from them.

  "Well, it's sure not safe to go out there by yourself," Kip said.

  "It won't let me out even with other people," Marty said. "Except with you. That's what it says, I have to go out with Kip Brewster or I can't go out."

  "It says that to me too," Lara said. "And that's fine with me."

  Marty didn't say anything.

  "Hmm. Marty, do you want me to fix the gate so it will let you out alone?" Kip asked.

  "Could you do that?"

  Kip smiled. "Gwen, did you tell the gate not to let Marty out without me?"

  "Yes."

  There was no time to think that over. "Can you make the gate let Marty go out alone?"

  "YES."

  "Don't."

  "Maybe," Kip said. "It wouldn't be easy, though. Maybe in a couple of days."

  "I want to go out," Marty said. "Today. Even if I have to go out with you. I'm going stir-crazy"

  "But I don't want you with me," Kip said. "Why would I? We're not friends."

  Lara was giggling again.

  Marty looked at her, then back at Kip. "Look, I know you don't like me—"

  "That's for sure!" Kip said.

  "I won't be any trouble," Marty said.

  "Sure," Kip said.

  "I won't. I promise."

  "What will you give me?"

  "What do you want?"

  "I want you to leave me alone," Kip said. "Stop pinching me and stealing my things and wrecking my stuff. Just leave me alone."

  "Will you take me out if I promise?"

  "Don't do it, Kip," Lara said. "He doesn't mean it."

  "Aw sh—Sorry. I do mean it, really."

  Kip looked to Lara. "I don't want him to come with us," she said. He looked back to Marty.

  "I promise," Marty said. "I'll act like your friend for—for three weeks."

  Six," Kip said. "And after that you leave me alone."

  "Four, and I'll leave you alone after."

  "Oh, all right," Kip said.

  Lara made a face, but she didn't say anything. They went to the gate. "Kip," he told it.

  "Lara."

  "Marty."

  "Kip Brewster, is Marty Robbins with you?" the gate asked.

  "Yes."

  The gate opened.

  They were halfway to the lake when the dogs growled warning. Kip used his binoculars to scan ahead. Before he saw anything, Lara said, "Centaurs. Over to the left."

  Kip swept the binoculars that way. A dozen centaurs were coming single file up the steep trail from the sea. Their fur was slicked back as if they had been in the water. Centaur fur was more like dog fur than horse hair. Centaurs had fur on their chests, and a sort of mane, but the area around their ears was curiously bare. Kip's zoology books said that these areas were extensively enervated, and the nerves went directly to the brain, but there were no sense organs they connected to. It was another of the mysteries of the planet.

  The leading centaur had a splash of bright orange-brown fur on its chest. The others were stretched out in single file behind it. They all moved purposefully, not wandering aimlessly as centaurs often seemed to do.

  "We're between them and their grove," Kip said. "We better run for it—"

  "They're not coming here," Lara said.

  She was right. The lead centaur angled off to their left, away from Kip and Lara and Marty, and the others followed.

  "They're going to the lake," Marty said.

  Kip nodded absently. "I wonder why—"

  "Thirsty," Lara said. "They hang around the lake a lot."

  "Let me see," Marty pleaded.

  Kip handed over the binoculars.

  Marty stared for a while. "They're carrying things," he said. "Like—baskets, or gourds. Here, look."

  Kip took his glasses back. The centaurs were certainly carrying dull yellow-colored objects about the size and shape of basketballs. They might have been gourds or some native plant. Kip couldn't tell. The centaurs were moving away, over the slight rise that separated the station from the lake. "I want to watch this," Kip said. "But we'll have to go closer to do it. That might be dangerous—"

  "We have the dogs," Lara said. "And I want to see too."

  "It'll be all right," Marty said. "Come on, let's go look." He started to walk toward the lake, then stopped. "Come on, Kip—"

  "Is there anything at the lake?"

  "I KNOW OF NOTHING, BUT THE IMAGES ARE NINETEEN MINUTES OLD. YOU MAY ALSO LOSE COMMUNICATIONS WITH ME FOR NINE MINUTES. ADVICE: EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION. THERE ARE RECENT REPORTS OF UNEXPECTED BEHAVIOR BY CENTAURES."

  "I'll be careful."

  There were three of them, two armed, and they had the dogs. Kip thought it should be safe enough, and he wanted to see what the centaurs were doing. He turned to Marty. "You'll stay close?"

  "Of course I'll stay close. Think I want to be out here by myself?" Marty demanded. "You two have the guns! Now come on—"

  "All right," Kip said. "But we go this way." He led them off at an angle, so that they moved away from the centaur grove while getting closer to the lake.

  "Good thinking," Lara said. "I sure don't want them to think we're trying to trap them."

  The centaurs had gone over the rise and were out of sight. "Think they saw us?" Marty asked.

  "Yes. They always see us before we see them," Kip said.

  "They sure didn't act like they saw us," Lara said. "They didn't even look at us."

  "Yeah, that's true," Kip said. And that was very strange. As they walked he told Gwen where they were, and about the centaurs.

  "DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF IN DANGER?"

  "No."

  "TELL ME INSTANTLY IF YOU BELIEVE YOU ARE IN DANGER."

  "Okay. But what is this about losing communications?"

  "I DO NOT ALWAYS HAVE RELIABLE COMMUNICATIONS CHANNELS. IT DEPENDS ON WEATHER AND SOME OTHER FACTORS. I HEAR YOU CLEARLY NOW, SO THERE SHOULD BE NO DIFFICULTIES. ADVICE: REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE."

  "I'll be careful." Kip gestured to send three of the dogs ahead. They dashed to the top of the rise and stopped when they could see over it, then stood on guard looking ahead, then back at Kip.

  "Nothing near them," Kip said. "Come on, then." They went over the hill.

  "There." Lara said. "By the lake—Kip, what are they doing?"

  Kip stared through the binoculars. The centaurs were about two hundred meters away, on the other side of a small cove, so that Kip looked across water to see them. "They're throwing those gourd things into the lake," Kip said. "See, there's another one.

  And one of them is getting something out of the lake—" He stared. "It looks like an ax," he said. "They must have dropped one of their axes in the lake, and now they're getting it back."

  "What's that one over on the left doing?" Marty demanded. "It looks like he's pulling one of those gourd things out of the water."

  "He is—"

  "Stupid centaurs," Marty said. "Throw things in, drag them back out. Gourds, axes—"

  Kip zoomed in with the binoculars. "Weird," he said.

  "Let me see." Lara took the binoculars and stared. "Why are those gourd things red?" she demanded. "They weren't red when they were carrying them up here."

  "Maybe the water turns them red," Marty said. "Sure, that's why they throw them in there, to turn them red—"
<
br />   "Could be," Kip said. He took the binoculars back and looked again. "But I'm not sure those are the same gourd things—There's another ax. And something else—it's a spear. Like in the history disks."

  "Do centaurs use spears?" Lara asked.

  "Well, sure they do, I can see one—"