by Moulton, CD
The surface of the sea was warm and didn't cool rapidly for the first kilometer or more so the descent was very rapid. There was a slow and steady current that was cooler on the near-surface parts, but which was soon the same temperature as the surrounding water. At somewhat more than two kilometers it was a lot warmer than the surrounding flows. At three it wasn't there anymore. At four there was some effect of the fumaroles and at floor level it wasn't too cold at all. The fumaroles did give enough infra-red that augmentation wasn't needed.
Thing loved exploring in these places and amused and thrilled itself with a number of the very strange lifeforms living on the cones of the blacksmoke chimneys. The Jornian's dome wasn't too much of an intrusion and only covered four of the chimney groups, but that was still bad for the natural life there.
After finding the com line and antenna leads Thing settled down to serious study. It wouldn't be needed until there was progress on the land above. It would lose itself in the study of these odd formations and the life that depended on this process, old as the planet itself. Thing wondered what the Shar were like other than physical traits. They were herding animals or, more properly, schooling animals and would probably be very warm and pleasant for an empath to be around. This was an easy world, which would make for some rather interesting problems if the Jornians tried to make slaves of them. They might find it wasn't an easy task.
If Tab and Kit had made it to the encampment yet, what had they encountered among the Shar? Thing knew Tab had a psychology that would make him enjoy the closeness of the school. Kit shared a lot with Tab. They were in no danger, but Z might be. Z would let his temper get away from him if those Jornians were doing anything to the Shar. Z would immediately see them as innocents. Maita had a vile temper about some things and Z tended to be worse. Tab and Kit may even be prone to temper outbursts once their psychological match was made with the Shar. Even TR had a temper at times.
How odd! Here was a situation where the newest member of the group, T6, may be the only one with an even temperament! Thing knew full well that it would react badly to any serious mistreatment of the Shar if only because it was the kind of thing the Immins would be prone to do. Most things the Immins had done disgusted Thing. It has read many thousands of them and had never found one with a psychology that was in any way positive.
The Jornians were far from what the Immins had been. That race brought about its own final extinction through its never-ceasing disgusting acts. Many Jornians were as good as the average race in the empire and better than some.
For now the smartest thing would be for mental energy to be expended in the research of these amazing things down here.
*
Z landed in TR and went out the port as if he owned the place. He was met by several armed Jornians rushing out to meet him.
"I'm Grot!" he announced before they could speak themselves. "So this place has grown this much! I was wrong about some of that part. I predicted at the first you were doomed to failure after that stupid screw-up with Sarnof, you know. Thought he'd bring in the fleet, but I guess he has better sense than to do that to himself. He'd put himself out of business.
"Who's in charge now?"
One of the Jornians came carefully forward and said, "Grot? What the hell? I'm nominally in charge I guess. I'm Kilk.
"Why didn't we know ... what did you...? I mean, how did you find us?"
"Oh, I was in on the original planning, but I was so pissed when Lugac and friends screwed up that thing with the hijacking I said it couldn't work anymore and went off in a huff. I've grown up since then. I was just a bareass kid.
"So! Is the rhodium reactor modulation phase disruptor generator working yet? I predicted about fifteen years and it's almost that."
"Lugac?" Kilk asked innocently. Much too innocently.
"Lugac and Root and Chart and Flale on Sarnof's ship," Z said. "I know you can't be too careful, but face it, I flew right here.
"Is it always this hot? I mean, I took readings on the way in and you're not too bad up here yet, but it's hardly past winter here!"
"It gets so hot we stay inside the air-cooled caves unless we have to go out for some reason," Kilk answered. "If you'll come in we'll check you out and show you around.
"Anrir send you?"
"Who? I never heard of him!" Z replied. "I planned the whole operation with Masyrt and Klevin. Ran into Klevin on Grlaq and he said you had this thing going here. He's been laying low and had to run.
"Did you know the emperor is supposed to be on Grlaq? Him and that Mentan and some other guy who goes all over with him. Terran one. The one who gets on holovid and nobody can figure what the hells he's talking about most of the time."
Use names like they're supposed to know them. Get them off balance.
"He’s on Grlaq!?" Kilk cried. "Great exploding novas! We have a ship there getting supplies right now! The emperor could follow them right back here!"
"Then you'd better get them on fastcom right now and tell them to get the nine hells out or lay low or something!" Z suggested. "There's no way the empire can know about this place, but it might not be smart to do business when the empire is sitting on your dome. They have too many ways to hear and see things and too many people will bang their jaws about too many things. That Mentan can take two totally innocent things from two people on different planets and figure out what's happening halfway across the galaxy even when the two people don't have a hint!"
The theory was to hit fast and hard, get them off balance and bulldoze a way right through them. Throwing them the information they would soon know anyhow if they didn't already could only help .
"Lugac took chances and almost screwed it up for all of us!"
It worked. Kilk ran for the com shed with Z close behind him. He called the ship, which was approaching the system right at the time to say there was a rumor the emperor was on Grlaq and to check it out before they landed. The message came back through the scrambler less than two minutes later.
Emperor's ship reported on Grlaq w/Terran/ Mentan. Proceeding to Strak. Will intercept ship 2. Warn off. Good intelligence! We may have landed right in a trap without it! We could be followed if we didn't expect it – Galf ship 1
Kilk fully accepted him then without further question. Still, he was placed in the caverns until the following day before being shown around. The disruptor was built and ready for use as soon as the generator was finished – in less than a halfyear. He was shown the mines and told the fumarole condenser mines were doing better than anticipated. They were sending in some very high quality ores. The fractional distillations were working to perfection.
"I was against that waste all along!" Z snapped. "The only way we would be detected mining the asteroids was if they KNEW we WERE mining them! We could go to any of three close systems and it wouldn't matter if they DID find us! This is such a waste! There are all the ores we could want for the taking in other nearby systems that aren't connected on top of that! Don't tell me about fumarole mining! It's a stupid waste!"
"I’ve heard all of those arguments," Kilk said, grinning. "We're self-sufficient here now and not dependent on one thing from offplanet."
"Maybe. I still don't see it," Z argued. "What's happening with the rhodium chrome generator capacity? That ever get past the 'maybe someday when we have the time' phase?"
"We have standard hydroelectric while we build the rhodium catalyzer nearby. It's still maybe two years away," Kilk replied. "I'll show you within a few days. We figured that's a pretty good investment so went ahead with it."
The following day he was shown how the disruptors would be placed to defend the whole planet and grumbled about that being another waste because the empire would wipe the whole damned planet out before it would get bogged down in a silly little war with disruptors.
"Didn't it ever occur to you that if the empire finds us the disruptors won't help us against them and the fact they're our only undetectable big weapon is irrelevant?" Z asked.
"No, not here!" Kilk explained. "Restricted planet with developing intelligence. Disruptors backwash. The emperor will call Fleet off and will simply keep us here. We can buy all the time we want that way."
"I don't much hold with that kind of tactic!" Z complained. "I agree with Emperor Maita about evolving cultures. I wouldn't do anything to cause a backwash."
"I wouldn't, either," Kilk replied. "It doesn't matter. The fact the things are here and we COULD use them is enough."
"What's going on?" Z asked, pointing to a group of Jornians over by the stream that came along one side of the camp.
"Probably natives," Kilk said. "We'll see. I'll show you the generators and we'll go right by them anyhow."
"Natives?" Z asked. "They come here?"
"Yeah. It's getting to that time of year," Kilk answered, laughing. "You'll have to meet our natives! That was one fiasco you would approve of. They're absolutely useless!
"They're fun, though. Come on!"
They went to see two of the Shar laying on a dark rock in the sun. They were both males and were teasing and playing with one another.
"They lay around in piles!" Kilk explained. "Literally! Those are two males. They never stop touching. It's something you have to get used to. They touch each other and they touch you. They'll climb right in your bed when it gets hotter."
Kilk explained a bit about the Shar and the reactions of the Jornians at first and again, now, and how there was a plan to use them for food. Kilk was leading him to the stream to show him the generators when he turned to look toward the two, who met his eyes directly. There was great intelligence there, though the Shar were supposed to not have much.
Then he saw the purple patch on the shoulder of one and the yellow hexagon on the chest of the other. Tab and Kit!
But what was going on? The two robots must certainly have a plan about this place – but what could they be up to?
Well, they were expected to be here at the camp and here they were.
Kilk showed Z the generators, then they walked back to the caves. The Jornians mostly left the robots on the rock, but two women were very close. As Z watched the women reached out to touch them and they reached back.
Kilk shook his head. "I told you about the ritual touching and inspecting?" he said. "It seems some of our people spend a lot of time trying to seduce them. I don't really understand what the attraction is, but they do."
"Are they successful?" Z asked.
"In seduction?" Kilk replied. "I'm sure I don't know. I sort of doubt it. The Pads aren't sexually stimulated by us. They don't mind mating right there on the stream bank when the mood strikes them, but I've never seen any of our people get very far toward seducing them. They mate with each other.
"I guess we don't know how. We get excited when they inspect us so completely and that's when the women get excited – when they return the inspections – but we don't touch and rub all over each other constantly like they do so they don't react to that sort of contact. Sexually."
"They probably react to pheromones," Z suggested. "From the way those two fool women are acting it's a good thing they don't know how to create the right smell! It might be a lot more than they can handle!"
Kilk laughed and they went into the cave to discuss the other projects. Z was having some trouble controlling his urge to tell Kilk just what he thought of anyone who would even consider using the Shar for food.
Well, he could understand that. They were considered to be wild animals, but the fact the Jornians would try to seduce them, then talk about using them for food was disgusting to him. Z had never cared much for the idea of bestiality – well, not in the constricted meaning of the word. Not when it was sexual acts with a dumb animal. He had truly loved Etel, a woman of a different race than the Terrans. She was his intellectual equal if not his better and that made a hell of a lot of difference to him.
Now, Tab would be the type to let the women be successful in their seduction attempts. Would that cause a stir or what?!
In one way Z was greatly relieved now. There had been no deliberate damage to the Shar. They wouldn't be harmed by any of this unless there was a biological agent that escaped Maita's research, which was highly unlikely. Maita's researches were thorough to an unbelievable degree. The fact the disruptors weren't ready for use was another very important plus, too. Maita could come in and move the Jornians out without much danger to the Shar. There would have to be a lesson in this for anyone else who thought they'd try any such scheme, though. Z didn't envy Maita's having to decide how to work this one. There were certainly problems enough, from a lot of directions.
Captive!
[ Maita, do you have any idea at all what the guys are doing out there? ]
Maita had finished the empire business and had pretty well exchanged all the new information with Searcher it had collected since the last time it conversed with the research ship four years past. It was now in the trench about two kilometers from the fumarole mining dome. Thing came aboard with several strange new lifeforms it wanted to transplant to EC.
[ I can put these by the fumaroles west of Sunset Island. Any news? ]
*The floaters show Z has already landed with TR in the encampment. He was seen with one of the Jornians several times inspecting various facilities. Tab and Kit are in the stream nearby and come out to meet with some of the Jornians from time to time. They seem to be friendly. There are no slaves here and the Jornians aren't doing anything to harm the natives in any way. If I didn't know better I'd think that those Jornian women are seeking sexual relations with our robot friends. They seem a bit too anxious to join in certain of the identification rituals of the Shar.*
[ DO you know better? I simply can't picture Tab turning down any opportunities along those lines! ]
*That's the main reason I feel I'm misreading the situation. He IS turning them down. They're feeling all over him and Kit and the attentions are returned, but there isn't any sexual.... I don't know.*
[ I wish I could communicate with ... Maita! I can go into the stream and directly communicate with them through their internal circuits! ]
*You'd be detected coming up that stream if you left it and the water's too strong for you to get up the falls, I'm afraid. They can handle it. I'm sure the Jornians haven't done anything here except to take the dangerous chance of bringing contamination. My tests haven't found anything. Things don't add up too well at this point. If the original plan was dominance of the Shar for labor or anything something's happened to change the plan. I hope Tab and Kit or Z can find what's really going on. I could go in and clean this mess up, but I wonder if that would result in ME doing the damage to the Shar the Jornians are NOT doing.*
[ No doubt we'll be called fast if there's any emergency. It's just that I'm nosy and like to know what's going on. I wouldn't put it past Tab and Kit to be trying to bait us about the sex situation because they know we're watching with the floaters. I refuse to worry unless we get an emergency call of some sort. ]
*Me, too. All we can do is wait.*
*
"It's totally impractical, Kilk!" Z snapped sharply. "Why do you think we could even handle an empire of our own? All you have to do is research Library to see what we're doing can't work! You can't hold power with military threat! It never lasts!"
"The Krofpth did exactly that!" Kilk snapped back. "For more than three hundred years!"
"A little empire of less than five hundred worlds and they'd already lost control before they had the sense to see they were spelling their own doom!" Z shot back. "I've studied it and can't see any way it will work. The Maitan Empire is already too big and is already run on lines that preclude our ever making this kind of thing work. The only way we could do this is to have the people behind us and they certainly don't have any reason to want to be rid of what they have now. The reason I dropped out of this before was because I saw how screwed up it was getting. Now I'm against it because of what it could do to the Jornian race. No one's going to join
with us so long as we want all the power. There's no purpose in it so long as we DO demand all the power. It'll have to fail and that isn't anything I want dumped on my progeny!"
"We're talking about six to eight hundred years from now," Kilk replied. "That's plenty of time for them to work out the details. So long as we have the inner drive we can't be defeated! Time is on our side!"
"Uh-huh. Like it was for the Immins?" Z asked sarcastically. "I assume you've studied that much, at least? You are aware what chance you're taking for the whole race? You are aware we could end up quarantined to Jorn? You know we could be declared outlaw as a race?"
"Grot, what are you trying to do?" Kilk asked. "Sabotage the whole thing? What chance does our race have of being anything more than just another little bit of galactic dirt except for this? I feel we're destined to lead, not to only be another race among the thousands who're used by this emperor!"
"Tell that to Zeena or Feach or New Zule or any of dozens of other races who're far above being what you'd have us become!" Z cried. "You don't even know what race the emperor is! I think that's to keep others from attacking them. People like you are and like I once was. It's been said by all who know the emperor that he hates the job, but no one can deny he's found the right way to do it. Let the machines handle the details. If we start this military thing again Jornians'll be classed with Immins and Pweetoos. Don't you see that the empire can call out the Acnians and Feach and the traders will follow if asked? Do you seriously think we can hope to fight an entire galaxy? Have you even considered that no one's ever going to accept us as something that is, as you said, 'destined to rule?'
