by Darrell Bain
“Which means Commander Saddler should to get back inside the ship,” Hawkins reminded. “We can't have you both outside at any one time."
“Stacey would make a better diplomat, I think."
“We think this is a male oriented society."
“Yeah, damn it. Why couldn't we have come out in a reality where women ran things and we were just sex objects?"
“No such luck,” Stacey said. She turned and departed for the ship, while Dan and Hawkins and a selected group of diplomats remained outside in a tent. It had been hastily erected as a barrier to the hot midday sun soon after a perimeter around the ship had been secured.
“I still think this show of force was unnecessary,” Jason Craddick complained, gazing around at the number of troops encircling the ship. “And I think we should have kept an equal number of female diplomats out here."
Dan glared at the man. He was clad in a brown suit with a red tie. He had a handkerchief clutched in his left hand which he used periodically to wipe his forehead.
“I told you once, the matter is settled, Mr. Craddick. If you can't live with the decision, I'll be glad to send you back inside and have your assistant take over."
A red color suffused the diplomat's face and neck. “No, no. It's just...” His voice trailed off as the motors pushing the three small dirigibles became louder.
Dan turned away. The dirigibles must have seen the perimeter Hawkins had hastily thrown up around the ship, using most of his men. They dropped anchor beyond the command post. He watched the dirigible crews with unbridled respect at their efficiency in bringing the unwieldy aircraft to rest and securing them to the ground at both ends in a very short time. It indicated a lot of practice, but he couldn't help wonder at the disparity between those aircraft and the jets which had escorted their own ship to a landing.
“No women,” Hawkins noted as a group began trudging down a sloping gangway to the ground.
“Uh huh. And here they come. Not wasting any time, are they? All right, Mister Craddick, you ready?"
“Yes, Captain.” The diplomat made an effort and braced his shoulders. The two assistants he had picked for first contact were just behind him.
Dan and Hawkins stood together. Off a little way, but still in hearing, Matt was standing beside the portable conference table with Nguyen Ky, the semanticist chosen for outside duty.
“Uh oh,” Dan hear Matt utter.
“What is it?"
“Looks like they have a priest or a chaplain with them. His togs resemble some of our religious garb anyway."
“Maybe not,” Dan said, then turned back toward the approaching group. He had nothing against religion but didn't like to deal on matters of importance with anyone whose mind was made up in advance on some issues. His hope waned as they drew closer. The man Matt had referred to wore a black vestment with a broad red slash sewed diagonally from his right shoulder to the left hem of the skirt. On his head was a red covering which looked like an oversized baseball cap. The incongruity of it almost made him laugh out loud before he managed to stifle it.
Against his better judgment, Dan had decided to let the diplomats handle the first contact. He didn't think he had the expertise to handle the subtleties and double talk of diplomats, but increasingly, he was bothered by the caliber of the broadcasts they intercepted. They seemed to be too authoritative in tone to suit him. Jason Craddick was the American Ambassador and had two U.N. Ambassadors to back him, one from Russia, one from India. He didn't know too much about the other two; Craddick had recommended them. He hoped the three of them could handle whatever negotiations were required.
The group of a dozen natives of the current Earth stopped a half dozen feet from the broad entrance to the tent. The man in the priestly vestment stepped forward. “I bring greetings from Head of State James B. Johnson, may his name be blessed. I am Father Abernathy, Principal of the Faith for this continent. On my right is the Principal's Arm for this area. On my left is the Principal's interpreter of scientific matters. From whence have you come and what is your purpose?"
Doesn't waste any time, pompous or not, Dan thought. He listened and nodded his head at the appropriate spot as Craddick introduced him and the rest of the group, then invited them into the tent for talk and refreshments.
Before long, he could tell the talks weren't going well. Craddick kept emphasizing their willingness to cooperate with all the nations of Earth. Each time he mentioned the United Nations, it drew a frown from Abernathy. He, in turn, wanted to know the ship's capability and whether they had come to assist in subduing the “Defilers of Christ in the South", apparently referring to the South American continent. He went on to say that would be a preliminary to their plans for re-occupying parts of “The Great Home Continent” which had fallen under the sway of the “Defilers". He spoke as if everything he said was already settled.
Craddick tried to tell the man they were neutral, but in doing so, he became rattled and let slip some of the ship's capabilities.
Dan seethed at the way the talks were going. He excused himself and went over to speak to Ky, talking in a low voice. “Who're the Defilers, Ky? Have you got a handle yet on the other parts of the Earth's religions? Apparently it's a bigger thing here than it is even on our Earth."
Ky nodded. “I'm beginning to believe this world is split into three major factions. The Christian religion and Muslims, like on Earth but much different, and another smaller faction occupying England and parts of what we knew as Europe, who're fairly neutral in the division between the religion resembling Catholics and another resembling Islam, although there's a lot of differences in both. Let me compare the recordings to the broadcasts and I'll have a better grasp of what we're up against."
Dan nodded and rejoined the others. He noted that Abernathy's eyes tracked him all the way back to his seat.
Once Craddick had let slip a few of the things Pioneer was capable of, the talk degenerated into how and when they would begin aiding in the religious conflict. Finally Dan decided to end it, in a most undiplomatic way. He stood up to be sure he would be regarded as a figure of authority. “We almost certainly shall not participate in any conflict on this Earth. However, we are most interested in contact between our groups and this is not our final word. We will leave a number of booklets explaining where we came from, how we got here and what our culture is like. Please study them at your leisure so that in future talks, you'll know exactly why we should remain neutral. In the meantime, we would very much appreciate a gift of something like an encyclopedia which would help us get to know you better."
Several of the new Earth delegation remained while the others walked in stately fashion back to their airships. One man actually sprinted back to the biggest dirigible and went inside. He came out a few minutes later lugging two large volumes and trotted back to present them to Craddick. Hands were shaken, evidently a common gesture here as well as on their Earth, and the talks broke up after setting a time to continue the next day.
* * * *
Back in the ship, Craddick was almost in tears over Dan's usurpation of his role, but Dan was having none of it. “I told you in advance not to reveal any of our military capabilities, Mr. Craddick. What possessed you?"
“You don't understand diplomacy. I was simply giving their delegation a hint of how we might help them without promising anything, of course. That might come later, but in the meantime, we needed to show some cooperation."
Dan rolled his eyes. He dismissed the man and headed back to his stateroom to wash off some of the dust accumulated from being outside in a dusty breeze, and to change into a fresh uniform. He told his key people, plus a few others by invitation, that he wanted a conference in his stateroom after they'd had four hours to evaluate the talks.
* * *
Chapter Thirty
Dan nodded to Ky to lead off after everyone was seated and had refreshments in front of them. “I've skimmed the two books they gave us. One is a religious tome that's going to take a lo
t of study but the other is something like an encyclopedia combined with a history primer and it's already proven useful. Apparently this Earth evolved cultures which somehow made empires more stable than the ones of our Earth. I'm not a sociologist or anthropologist, but a person has to have a fairly good background in those subjects to become a semanticist, so I'm fairly sure of that much. Now as to why—well, I'm thinking a couple of the religions here had more influence, or perhaps were more competitive at an earlier date. Whatever, that's the situation today. The Earth is split into three empires, though not necessarily called that. Here we have the Braken Confederacy. In South America and a large part of Asia, there's what they call ‘The Land of Allah'. We've gotten broadcasts from overseas and that's how they refer to themselves as well, though in a language resembling a mixture of Farsi and Arabic. And last we have The Commonwealth, led by what we thought of as England. Ms. Borgan can take the sociological aspects of all this farther than I can."
“I've told you to call me Ger,” the socioanthropologist said with a smile. Please do.” Getting a nod from Ky, she continued. “The two religious empires are usually at odds with each other, but they'd both love to conquer the Island of ... oh, for now let's just use the place names we're familiar with to make it simpler. England. They'd like to conquer England and its associated nations. They might manage it if they'd stop bickering and cooperate, even though both of them are somewhat behind the Commonwealth technically."
“What's England like?"
“Unlike our Earth. In this reality they kept a few of the old pagan Gods and just added Christ and Allah to the pantheon. They have complete freedom of religion and worship, even more so than America and some European nations did on our Earth. If we plan on settling here, they'd probably be our best bet, except we might eventually find ourselves in a war and have to choose sides."
“Always wars, aren't there? Do you have a point of divergence?"
“That's the really strange part to me. It seems this Earth must be the result of a great number of divergences, rather than what I'd expected; only one from an infinite sheaf of possibilities. Not that it's impossible, since it obviously happened, but I'd always thought of quantum theory allowing one of two choices which changed things, rather than a continuing series of divergences. I'm afraid my thinking must have been rather simplistic."
“It was,” Susan confirmed, “but don't feel bad. That's how most people think, when they think of quantum theory at all."
Dan rapped his knuckles on the edge of the table. “That's all interesting speculation, but we want to decide what to do. Let's move on."
“All right then,” Hawkins said. “This ‘Arm’ the priest mentioned. Did the rest of you take that the way I did?"
“How?” Susan asked, obviously curious.
“As head of the military forces of the church for this continent."
“I took it that way,” Stacey said simply. “Not only that, I suspect the whole delegation has a militaristic mind set, for all the talk of religion. I watched the whole thing on my screen from the cameras we had in the tent. I saw the way their eyes lit up every time they glanced at our ship, and especially when Craddick mentioned how well we were armed. They'd love to have us on their side."
“That was my impression, too,” Dan said. He took a quick poll of those present and saw that most of them agreed with Stacey's analysis, including a psychiatrist who knew something of body language and its meanings.
“Now then, what do we do? Leave here and go visit England? Go elsewhere and leave the whole planet to its own devices?"
“I'd say we ought to at least visit the culture England controls where there's freedom of worship,” Hawkins said. “But I can tell you in advance, they'll be militaristic, too."
“How can you tell that?” Susan asked.
“Easy. They'd have to be if they've survived this long while caught between two antagonistic cultures driven by religious dogma."
Susan nodded that she understood and saw everyone agreed with that observation.
“Before we decide on going or staying, we'll just about have to find somewhere to let the rest of the crew get out of the ship for awhile. Why don't we stay and talk to the delegation here like we agreed on, and in the meantime, let some of those who want to go out and wander around."
Hawkins shook his head. “Matt, as much as I know some folks are going space-happy from being confined so long, I don't think we can risk it. At least not until after the talks tomorrow."
“You think they might try something funny, Chet?” Dan asked. He was glad to see their primary military specialist as concerned as he was.
“I can't put my finger on anything threatening, not at this stage. I just want to wait."
Dan hesitated for a moment before he spoke, knowing he was going to cause some unhappiness. Finally he said “I guess the final decision is up to me, as usual, and I'm going with Chet. No civilians outside yet, other than the ones we designate. We'll take the same crew tomorrow, but I want a couple of female volunteers to accompany us."
“Good,” Stacey said immediately, looking at her husband with approval. “I, for one, want to see what their reaction is. Do you realize they never even mentioned the female sex yesterday?"
“So they didn't. Well, you can't go, so we'll have to ask others."
“I'll go,” Susan said.
“Me, too,” Ger quickly seconded.
Dan hated to risk either of those two knowledgeable women, but he trusted their judgment and wanted their take on whatever reaction their presence elicited. “All right, if you're sure."
* * * *
While Dan stood duty in Central Control, Stacey stayed busy on a project of her own. She realized they were basing most of their assumptions on radio broadcasts and a couple of hours skimming volumes furnished by the delegation, plus the hour of talk, mostly conducted by Craddick and his cohorts. She began bringing in some television by inducing Pioneer to tap into one of the dirigibles hanging high overhead. She thought it must be up there in order to pick up line of sight television. She was right, but it took almost an hour until their ship and an electronicist managed to match differing broadcast standards. After that she had several channels to choose from. She surfed, hour after hour, not really knowing what she was looking for; she simply wanted more information.
When Dan finally came back to the stateroom, she had more data than either of them knew what to do with immediately. Stacey was due in Central Control, but Dan quickly called Matt and dragooned him into standing the watch. After that, he sat with Stacey for more hours, looking at interesting replays she had recorded, knowing there must be some key information buried somewhere in the data.
“I'm beat, Dan. Can we continue this tomorrow morning? We'll have time before the talks start again."
“Sure, go on to bed. I'll join you shortly."
But it was nearly two hours later before he slipped between the sheets, and another hour before he slept.
* * * *
The next morning, Dan called Hawkins to the stateroom, needing to talk to him before he went outside to be with the troops.
A knock brought Dan to the door.
“Hi, Boss,” Hawkins said.
“Good morning. Come on in. I've got coffee."
After he poured for them, then added another cup for Stacey, he gave Hawkins his orders. “When you go out, start bringing the troops back, but do it innocuously, as if they're just changing the guard or coming to get more supplies or something like that. When the talks start, bring the ones who're left all to the front, and make sure they're alert."
“You smell the manure, too, huh?"
“Stacey and I got Pioneer to tap into the dirigible overhead, then stayed up half the night watching reruns of television broadcasts we'd seen. I can't be absolutely sure, but it sounds as if our guests didn't listen when I told them we're neutral. I believe they did a little bragging in advance as well."
“How so?"
“Stacey saw i
t first. A shift in news about us. First we were extolled as a “Messenger From Heaven", then as “God's Helper", but suddenly it began changing. The last programs we watched, there were some indications of a great new weapon to be used against Defilers, but nothing about us at all. See where that leads?"
“Uh huh. For some reason they think they're going to have access to our ship very soon."
“With them running it,” Stacey said. “Dan, do you need to go?"
“I have to; otherwise they'd get suspicious early and we might get a lot of our troops killed. As is, I can have Pioneer's defensive shield stretch out to cover the pavilion, but it can't cover the whole perimeter at the same time. It doesn't work quite the way when grounded as it does in space, you know."
“Yeah, so I've gathered,” Hawkins said. “It protects you and Stacey primarily, and everyone else second. It should do the job, though. Okay, I'll get going."
“One more thing. I'm going to cancel Susan and Ger's appearance. I can't see the point in risking them when we're leaving here. For all we know, they might blow up just seeing women with us. It might have been worthwhile if we'd planned on staying in this locality, but not now."
“I would have asked you not to in any case,” Stacey said. “We never saw a single woman in a position of authority while watching all those broadcasts. I think they must keep their females in a form of seraglio that keeps them completely out of all public affairs.” She put her arms around herself in a protective gesture even while far inside the ship. It was an instinctive reaction to a totally alien culture, one which obviously had no use for women other than as sexual objects and production of children.
“Okay, now I'm leaving,” Hawkins said. “Hell, we didn't know how good we had it in our reality, did we?"
* * * *
Hawkins began slipping soldiers back to Pioneer early the next morning by acting out a changing of the guard, then pretending to send troops into the ship for supplies. However, for every two who went inside, only one returned. This continued right up until the time for further talks.
