Subway to the Stars

by Raymond F. Jones

  "If I weren't too old to learn, I might ask you to show me the right way."

  And who am I to tell anyone how to dream, Harry thought. When all of my own have turned so sour --

  The pile of debris continued growing through the day. By nightfall, it diminished its rate of growth slightly, but continued to glow and roar and stir fierce winds. Dr. Ames said that the transmission had undoubtedly stopped long ago, but whatever was in the pipeline would have to feed on through to its own destruction.

  They knew that some salvage of a thousand priceless technologies might be possible from the debris, but they gave little thought to that now.

  During the afternoon, living conditions were restored as best they could. The dead were buried and an airlift of the injured to Cape Town was begun.

  They bore the aliens to the expanded, makeshift quarters in the barracks buildings, gave them such medical care as seemed feasible while they took care of their own injured.

  Harry looked for Nancy near the end of the day and found her at the bedside of the alien child.

  "I've been able to talk with her a little," said Nancy. "She speaks the language of the Emissary, which we've all learned a little. She's about the age of a ten-year-old among us. She was on the way across the Galaxy to visit others of her family. It was the first trip she had ever been allowed to take alone. The one who picked her up was an older woman with whom she'd made an acquaintance just before the trip. She's like a little girl on the way to visit her grandmother in the country!"

  So it hadn't been so silly, after all.

  Harry looked at the little lemur face. The huge eyes seemed to plead for succor he could not give. "Do you have any idea how to treat her? Do you know what she eats?"

  Nancy shook her head. "We've read something in their books about their native foods, but we can't compare them with ours. We've taken blood and tissue specimens for analysis to see if we can estimate food requirements. We know, of course, they're on a carbon-oxygen cycle, so we ought to be able to come close."

  X

  On the morning after the disaster, they saw what Harry had been told everyone expected to see.

  The Emissary.

  His ship was like an eight-foot crystal egg. It appeared after sunrise between the South Grid and the ravaged Operations Center. All station personnel who were able to walk were waiting and watching for him. And dreading the sight when he came.

  The Emissary emerged from his ship and walked toward the ruin. The station fire truck was still pouring foam onto the outbreaks of fire. The Emissary watched it, and the personnel of Africa Prime watched him. The silence was total. Only the squeals of jungle animals beyond the compound and the hiss of foam on the mountain of debris were heard.

  Dr. Ames walked slowly from the crowd toward the Emissary. He passed the crystal egg, and then the Emissary turned and saw him. They stood a moment. The crowd could not hear their words. Harry guessed Dr. Ames was telling how the accident happened: An act of war by the enemies of the Gambuans.

  The alien and the scientist began walking back. They stopped in front of the crowd. Dr. Ames began speaking slowly.

  "I have expressed our deep regret to our friend, the Emissary, that our condition of warfare has finally resulted in such a tremendous disaster to their transportation system. I am told that there can be no consideration of the continuation of the relay station, even though I have suggested relocation to other, mor remote areas, such as the poles or the Australian outback. They have made a comprehensive computer-type prognostication of the political and martial future of Earth's civilizations, and it is not favorable to their continuing operation here. There is no other answer except to end the association. The Emissary would like to express his regrets and his thanks to you."

  In halting bursts of gutturally-spoken English, the Emissary began to speak. At first, Harry could not distinguish the words, but gradually he was able to get the intent of the alien's words.

  "It is with regret that I end our establishment," the Emissary said. "You have served faithfully and long, but our establishment is not safe. Our merchandise has been destroyed and the lives of our people have been lost -- and we shall have to account to the Dmwar and the Ectoba Galaxies for the loss of their travelers, and it will not be a pleasant negotiation. This must end. We give you our many thanks for your services. But this must end."

  He seemed to glance over the crowd without seeing and then turned. Disbelief and uncomprehending disappointment were on the faces of the engineering and technical personnel of Africa Prime. But nobody spoke.

  None except Harry Wiseman.

  He plunged out of the crowd and stopped within a half dozen feet of the Emissary.

  "Just a minute, please. I think you're forgetting something."

  The Alien turned at the strange sound of Harry's voice, scanned him with the lemur eyes and finally spoke disparagingly, "Nothing has been forgotten."

  "Payment," said Harry. "You forgot to say anything about payment for the services rendered to date."

  The eyes scanned him again. "You have not been here before. I would have remembered you."

  "I'm new, all right. I've been appointed Technical Contracts Negotiator. That's my business. Sometimes a contractor and a customer don't see eye to eye on the cost of a program, and it's my business to iron out any discrepancies."

  "You talk gibberish," said the Emissary. "I don't understand a thing you are saying."

  "I'm saying you owe these people payment for their services. They have done something for you, now you must do something for them."

  The Emissary turned and faced Harry squarely. "You excite my interest. They made no request for any kind of payment -- except to come to our planet, which we could not permit because of restrictions on lower cultures. It disturbed us at first. We could not understand why you made no request in return. We concluded your culture was just too primitive. I estimated we were adored, and we gave small things like gold bobs."

  "You misestimated completely, I'm afraid," said Harry. "those gold bobs were used to buy goods to sustain these people, but it was strictly subsidence. A payment in terms of profit is desired. Do you understand me?"

  "Yes -- I think I do," the Emissary said. "And you astonish me. I did not know this was so high a culture."

  Harry flet a burst of elation. He'd been right in his sizing up of the situation. The scientists had been taken for boobs because they had acted like boobs. Harry smiled expansively and hooked his thumbs in his belt.

  "Well, now -- so you recognize that we haven't had a very good deal. So you'll see how we just couldn't take another contract like this one. We've lost our shirts, and I know you wouldn't want to see that happen again -- "

  "This must end," the Emissary said with discernible frost in his voice. "We have agreed to that."

  Harry ignored his interruption.

  "We haven't had a very good deal. But we might be persuaded to continue if some arrangement for back remuneration could be made. In turn, we would be agreeable to establishing fully secure facilities."

  "There is no place on your planet that is secure. We would not risk establishing our station again under such conditions as prevail here."

  Harry nodded in agreement. "We are more than aware of our own grave deficiencies. We feel deeply our own negligence in exposing your station to the hazards we did. But we also recognize your great need of a terminal in this area. That is why we are prepared to make extraordinary concessions in reestablishing the station in a positively secure site."

  "Name such a place!"

  "Mars. The planet Mars."

  The Emissary stared, his mouth opening silently. Dr. Ames stared in disbelief.

  Nancy Harris gave a little scream. "Mars!"

  Harry nodded. "Mars."

  The Emissary closed his mouth and started over. "You have no facilities or access to Mars." He glanced around in despair. "You are the most preposterous people in all the Five Hundred Million Galaxies."

  "It's ju
st as easy for you to set up the equipment on Mars as on Earth," said Harry. "That's not a pinpoint's difference in location on your Galaxy maps."

  "You certainly know what the Martian terrain and atmosphere are like! You couldn't exist there -- "

  Harry shrugged carelessly. "A protective dome with captive Terran environment would be a simple matter for your engineers."

  The Emissary stared from one to the other as if trying to absorb the impact of this proposal. "This would be a great effort -- so great a change -- for your people."

  "That's right," said Harry hastily. "And that's why I mentioned remuneration to begin with. We could only consider such a project on the basis of very adequate remuneration -- which you agree we haven't had so far. But we'll consider taking on this job -- if you care to make an offer."

  "There has been difficulty in staffing even this station. There would not be enough of you willing to go to Mars for such a project."

  Harry laughed heartily and turned slowly to those behind him. Now was the moment of truth. His laugh died as he caught Ames's apoplectic eye, and the confused countenances of Kripps, Stevenson, a score of engineers. He forced himself to laugh again. "He thinks we wouldn't want to go to Mars. Can you imagine that, folks? We'd jump at the chance to go to Mars, wouldn't we? Wouldn't we, Dr. Ames? Kripps, you'd jump at the chance to run this station on Mars, wouldn't you?"

  The throats of some seemed to work with strangled words. Ames stood tight-lipped and stiff.

  Harry wheeled desperately. "We'd go to Mars and love it, wouldn't we? Wouldn't we -- ?" He searched with rising panic for a responsive face in the immobile crowd. A smile was like a sudden light in the gloom. "Wouldn't we, Nancy?"

  "Of course we would!" Nancy exclaimed. "I've always wanted to go to Mars. It's the one place I'd rather see than any other." She turned to Ames and shook his immobile arm. "Don't you agree, Dr. Ames? Won't it be wonderful, living and working on Mars?"

  Ames's immobile stature seemed to break, and he turned, smiling down at Nancy. "I can't imagine anything more delightful, my dear."

  Kripps simply shook his head in disbelieving wonder. "You did it, Wiseman. Damned if you didn't do it."

  "But you'll go with us to Mars, won't you?" Harry persisted.

  "Yeah. Yeah, sure I'll go. Do you think you could leave me out of it?"

  They were all laughing then and pounding each other on the back and shaking hands and kissing the girls. Harry turned to the Emissary. "You see? There's no question about our going to Mars if you wish to provide the means and a proper contract."

  The Emissary nodded uncomprehendingly. "Yes, I see," he said. "I see."

  "If you care to step into the office back there, I think we can clear a desk and perhaps discuss terms of the contract -- "

  The Emissary strode slowly forward at Harry's invitation. Behind his back, Nancy threw her arms around Harry's neck and kissed him exuberantly.

  It would be a long time, Harry thought, before Collins got his report on Smith Industries.

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