The Space Barbarians

by Mack Reynolds

  John snorted and turned to one of the other clannsmen who had pulled off his leather shoes and was busily donning a pair he had brought from the longhouse.

  “What do you have there?” John said coldly.

  “Shoes from Beyond. Boots of the soldiers from Sidon.”

  “What is wrong with your own shoes, made of good leather?”

  The young clannsman grinned. “It is well-known that the material from Sidon wears forever, or nearly so.”

  “Do you realize that if you become used to these articles from Beyond, your desire for them will continue to grow? Soon you will wish your kilts to be of the textile from Beyond, soon you will develop taste for the delicate food from Beyond, for the drink, rather than our own uisgebeatha of our fathers.”

  One of the sagamores laughed. “That last, at least, I can understand. The drink of the otherworldlings is the drink of the Holy!”

  John turned his cold eye on him. “Develop such tastes and ultimately you will seek this method of barter they have, money. To get money you must needs work for the Sidonians, in their mines, in their cities, as a clannless one works. In time, given such tastes and desires, you will become as though clannless yourselves.”

  The one who had liberated the boots grinned again and said, “Not so long as I can take these things in raid.”

  The looting of the longhouse converted into barracks had been completed, and the laughing, shouting clannsmen were tying the foreign weapons, books and tapes to the horses they had comandeered from the twenty unhappy raiders. The litters for the two laser rifles gave them some trouble but didn’t present an insurmountable problem, although the clumsy rig slowed the animals down considerably.

  John of the Hawks said to DeRudder, “You can ride?”

  DeRudder said, “On the planet of my birth, it is a sport. I can ride.” He swung into the saddle of the horse the other had indicated.

  John of the Hawks shouted, “Quickly, now! We ride hard, or we will be overtaken by the Sidonians before we reach the shelter of the hills.”

  With John, Don of the Clarks and the prisoner in the lead, the column galloped off, the pack animals between the advance elements and the rear guard.

  DeRudder said, “How did you know how to operate the laser rifles?”

  John, whose eyes were most often on the sky, in the direction of New Sidon City, said, “Clannsmen of the Highland Confederation, some months ago, seized some of your weapons in a raid. They also took prisoners some of your soldiers and, ah, convinced them it would be well to give instructions in the use of your weapons from Beyond.”

  “But you are of the Loch Confederation.”

  John looked at him. “We are beginning to learn, Samuel of the DeRudders. A delegation of the Highland Confederation came to us and showed us the workings of your laser guns.”

  DeRudder looked unhappy. He was a small man, by Caledonian standards, but even in his middle years, well proportioned, and even as a prisoner of these barbarians, possessive of a cool dignity. Cornet Samuel DeRudder was no coward, whatever else he might be.

  Don of the Clarks grinned at him mockingly. “It does not sit well, that in the future you will perhaps be faced with your own weapons that break the bann, eh, man from Beyond?”

  DeRudder growled, “If you dullies weren’t so empty, you’d voluntarily come to our cities or mining towns and get with it. This planet is one of the richest in the system. Once under full exploitation and you’d have a paradise on your hands. This world could be a garden.”

  John’s eyebrows went up cynically. “A garden for whom, Samuel of the DeRudders? Those who work in the mines are almost all, save for a few of your technicians, as you call them, Caledonians. I have never been in a mine, but from what I hear they are not gardens, Samuel of the DeRudders.”

  “Just Samuel DeRudder,” the other said. “You’ve got to work before you enjoy all the things we’ve introduced from Sidon; better food, better medical care, better education, better entertainment, better clothes, better houses—better everything.”

  Don laughed at him mockingly. “Perhaps you think these things from Beyond are better, Samuel, Cornet of the DeRudders, but for us, perhaps we prefer our own food and clothing and the longhouses in which we were born. Perhaps we prefer to spend our days in honorable raid upon our enemies, rather than the blackness of the mines.”

  DeRudder looked at him scornfully. “And do you prefer the mumbo jumbo medicine of your bedels, when you’ve been wounded in one of those endless skirmishes of yours? I understand, you yourself were once’ cured in one of our autohospitals.”

  Don was silent to that.

  John said, “Some things, admittedly, that you have brought from Beyond are desirable. One of these is your medicine. But these things we can learn to use, without becoming slaves and spending our years toiling for your United Interplanetary Mining.”

  DeRudder was still scornful. “And you’d prefer to get it by stealing, rather than decent work.”

  John of the Hawks was irritated. He let his eyes sweep the far sky again, before answering. Then he said, “This work that you are so keen that we Caledonians take up—if it is so decent, so desirable, why do you not do it yourself? I do not note, Samuel of the DeRudders, that you spend time in the mines personally.”

  “I’ve worked in my time, John. For long years I was a ship’s officer in the Exploratory Service.”

  John snorted. “Until one day your ship stumbled upon Caledonia, and you saw the great opportunity to rob a whole world of its treasures. Then you stopped working yourself and began to scheme to get others to work for you, even though it meant the destruction of whole towns and the dishonorable killing of thousands of women and children.”

  DeRudder looked at him. “You’ve been doing some reading. I don’t think I’ve ever met a clannsman with what you could call an education.”

  John said in a low voice, “That is one of the other things worthwhile that you have brought from Beyond, Samuel of the DeRudders. And we of the clanns are beginning to realize that if we are to be able to expel you from our world we must adapt to some of your ways.”

  Don of the Clarks scowled at his words. He said sourly, “Actually, as the Keepers of the Faith continually say, all necessary knowledge is in four Holy Books.”

  DeRudder allowed himself the luxury of a chuckle.

  John was shaking his head. “No, Don of the Clarks. The Keepers of the Faith are wrong. The four Holy Books are only the small remnant of the books that must have come to Caledonia on the Inverness Ark. On this planet Sidon, and on all the other worlds Beyond, there must be…” John looked at the otherworldling for confirmation. “There must be dozens of other books.” He added sharply, “Why do you laugh?”

  “A joke of my own,” DeRudder said wryly.

  One of the sagamores behind called, “A vessel of the sky!”

  John of the Hawks shot a quick glance back and upward.

  “Scatter!” he shouted. “Make for the caves in the hills! Those who have weapons of the Sidonians, rally with me here. We will take the animals with the two laser rifles. Otherwise, all scatter and make for the assembly of the Dail!”

  Chapter Three

  In times past, the meetings of the Loch Confederation Dail had been held each year in a different phylum of the loosely united claims. Today, with many of the towns leveled by the beams and bombs of the Sidonian invaders, it had convened in a large natural amphitheater in the mountains. Unlike the past, there were few women present, and there was little bartering going on. The invasion from the stars had cut the population, although the rate of decline had slackened now that the clannsmen had adapted to the new methods of warfare.

  As John of the Hawks and his prisoner and small troop came riding in, he let his eyes go about the vicinity. There were large natural caves, which had been increased in size even further through the efforts of the clannsmen. He nodded approval. In case of discovery by the enemy, all would be able to find shelter.

&
nbsp; He said to Don of the Clarks, “Remove the blindfold from the eyes of Samuel of the DeRudders and have him put under guard. He would never be able to find this place again. I go first to see to the emplacing of the laser rifles, to defend us if we are raided whilst in session. Then I go to report to my fellow sachems.”

  Don grinned at him. “Stay clear of the bedels, John. Rumor has it that they are out for your kilts, for the proof is here before us that you have broken the bann a dozen times over.”

  John of the Hawks snorted. “And will break ft a dozen times more, if ever we are to defeat the clannless ones from Beyond.” He turned his horse and led his group off to locate suitable stations for the laser rifles.

  DeRudder looked after him thoughtfully and said, to no one in particular, “There goes the most dangerous man on all Caledonia.”

  Don said mockingly, “Perhaps that is the way you think of it, Samuel of the DeRudders, but for us, there goes the hope for victory for the clanns.”

  DeRudder looked at him. “There can be no victory for the clanns, Don Clark. Brave, your supreme raid cacique undoubtedly is, but it is the existence of such that will continue to lead to your decimation, since he will never give up, and others will continue to be led to their deaths because of him. I recall to mind a great… war cacique, you would call him, in the history of Mother Earth. He led a lost cause in a great civil war. So loved and respected was he, and such a genius in the military field, that he kept the war going for at least two years after his side had no chance of victory. His country was devastated as a result, and tens of thousands of brave men on both sides who could have lived, died. For decades, for a century and more after the conflict ended, his countrymen continued to honor his memory, never realizing that he had been a curse, not a blessing, to his people. His name was Lee.”

  Don of the Clarks was scowling. He said. “We will see, man from Beyond. But brave clannsmen can never be defeated by clannless soldiers, slinks who are afraid to fight honorably with claidheammor, carbine and skean but must hide behind the defenses of large cities and kill at great distances and from ships from the air.”

  DeRudder said dourly, “It is an often held fallacy, clannsman. Down through the ages, it has been repeated. However, I can think of few examples of tribesmen defeating civilized man with his weapons. You have never heard of them, but off-hand I can think of Fuzzy-Wuzzies and Aztecs, Zulus and Incas, Sioux and Iroquois, courageous men all, who also held to the delusion that brave barbarians can defeat lesser men, when it comes to courage, but armed with the weapons of technology.”

  Don said, “I do not follow you, Samuel of the DeRudders. But come I will see that you are held in custody until the convening of the Dail.” He indicated the way.

  “What do they want with me?” DeRudder growled.

  Don grinned at him. “It is hardly for me to say, but for the assembly of the Dail itself.”

  When all else had been attended to, John of the Hawks, his heart heavy, stopped off briefly at the tent that bore at its top his pennant as Sachem of the Hawks.

  She whom he sought was carding wool in the women’s quarters when he entered. She smiled up at him gently.

  “Alice,” he said. “Alice of the Thompsons.”

  “John,” she said softly. “Perhaps at long last you are prepared to take your soma and enter with me into the Shrine of Kalkin.”

  Agony came over his face. “Aüi, Alice. That is forever impossible. As impossible as our love, for there is no love for those who have taken this cursed drug of the men from Beyond.”

  “All love is with those who walk with Lord Krishna, John,” she said with gentle reproof.

  He took her by the hands and brought her to her feet and stared in misery into her eyes. “I know not why I keep you here. All others who have taken soma we have driven from the phylum, save only you. Perhaps I should let you go to New Sidon or one of the other cities. There, at least, you could attend the pagoda with the others who follow the new religion that is against the Holy. There, perhaps, you would at least be happy.”

  She looked into his face and frowned slightly. “But I am happy here, John. We who have taken our soma are happy anywhere, for we walk with Lord Krishna. And here perhaps I can do the work of Kalkin, the final Avatara of Vishnu, by urging you and others to take the holy soma.”

  He closed his eyes in pain and drew in a sighing breath. “Aüi, Alice,” he said meaninglessly.

  He turned and left her. And she looked after him, deep, deep behind her eyes a hurt trying to come through.

  John, as Sachem of the Clann Hawk, sat with his caciques in a body in the great circle that composed the assembly of the Dail of the Loch Confederation. Behind them stood the sagamores and renowned raiders, and behind them the multitude of full clannsmen. In his immediate vicinity were the other clan leaders of the Aberdeen Phylum, including Don, who, as Raid Cacique of the Clan Clark, held suffcient rank to participate in confederation decisions.

  One of the elder bedels said the praise to the Holy and then retreated to the ranks of his fellows.

  The aged Thomas, Sachem of the Polks, took his place at the amphitheater’s center and said, “If there is no word of protest, the first matter to come before the Dail will be that of the invaders from Beyond. Already the criers have informed us that a major chief of the Sidonians has been captured by the supreme raid cacique and can be sent with our ultimatum to this huge town New Sidon City. If there is no word of protest, I will ask that the man from Beyond, Samuel, Cornet of the DeRudders, be brought before us.”

  I le held his silence for a moment, but no one spoke. Two clannsmen brought DeRudder from the cave in which he had been held, to the center of the amphitheater, and then withdrew to the ranks of their fellows.

  Cornet Samuel DeRudder lacked dignity no more than he did courage. He stood erect and looked around at them, his eyes level.

  He barked, “What do you want with me? I warn you now that this is one more crime to be punished. I would have thought you already had listed enough. In my kidnapping, your war chief and his group butchered a post consisting of ten men, not to speak of the entire complement of a Sidon Spacefleet skimmer.”

  Thomas of the Polks looked at him evenly, “Do not speak of crime and punishment, man from Beyond. We hardly knew its meaning before your coming. Now we are beginning to learn. All over Caledonia, young people have been cozened into coming to your cities and mining centers. There they learn dishonorable ways, clannless ways that once they were taught were against the bann. There would seem to be no bann in your cities, save only these numberless laws you bring, each of which results in punishment if not observed, though some would seem impossible to observe.”

  DeRudder said, “We bring the laws of civilized men!”

  And Thomas of the Polks said, “We do not want them.”

  “But you will get them, if you want them or not. Slowly, perhaps, but surely, the Caledonians are accepting the new. The younger people in particular are beginning to realize that the old ways were cruel and hard. Possibly half of your males were killed or crippled in your raids in the old days. It was a primitive society, hardly beyond the Neolithic, and it was fated to go.”

  There was a stirring in the ranks of the assembled chiefs of the Loch Confederation, but none added to the voice of Thomas of the Polks, their senior.

  He said now, “Our bedels have, Samuel, Cornet of the DeRudders, gone to the effort of reading some of your books, and although it has been difficult to understand many of your ways, still a certain amount has come through to us. It would seem that although you speak greatly of your laws and the ways of what you call civilization, your words have double meaning. In much the same manner that you arrived long years ago with your supposed holy men who wished to give all soma and make clannless ones of them, so now you attempt to cozen us with lofty praise of your laws. However, we find that you do not, yourselves, abide by them.”

  “That is a lie!” DeRudder barked.

  A sigh went
through the assembly.

  Thomas of the Polks said evenly, “You are not kyn of mine, and thus the bann does not apply; however, I do not lie. We have perused your books of laws of Sidon and of this League of Planets to which you belong. And thus we have found that illegally, by your own usage, you steal the products of our mines and also the products of our fields, of our seas.”

  DeRudder said, That is a lie! Every action taken by the United Planetary Mining Company is condoned by Sidon law and the Canons of the League of Planets.” He snorted. “We have a panel of solicitors as long as your arm, making sure no League Canon is broken. We’re not dullies. Sooner or later a representative from the League will show up. We want everything to be aboveboard.”

  “And how do you explain, Samuel, Comet of the DeRudders, the fact that before you arrived on Caledonia, all the lands, the mines and the seas belonged to the clannsmen. Now you claim ownership of wide areas, and they the richest.”

  “We bought them! We legally took possession of areas not claimed by anyone and bought the rights of exploitation in other cases.

  “But there were none who had the right to sell,” Thomas said reasonably. “The lands, the seas, the mines belong to all. A single man cannot sell such things.”

  “They were no ordinary men. We signed our treaties with sachems, chiefs of tribes. If they haven’t the right to sell their own property, who has?”

  “No one has,” the sachem said. “You do not bother to learn our institutions, man from Beyond. A sachem is elected by the clannsmen to perform definite duties, which are multiple. But he has no power to sign away the lands of his clann.”

  DeRudder said, “All property belongs to someone, by our laws. If a head of a clann or the combined heads of phylum wish to sell the rights to mining properties, they can. So our jurors have ruled.”

  “We do not completely understand these jurors of yours and how they can rule on matters here on Caledonia. But this we say. The phyla of the Loch Confederation reject your presence on Caledonia, as do, we understand, the Highland Confederation and that of the Ayr and, undoubtedly, many other confederations beyond these. We reject your claims to rights to mine our resources, to plant the fields for your own uses, to fish the seas. We reject all this and demand you return to your world of Sidon and leave us alone and to our own Holy and our dreams of the Land of Leal to come. That is the message we wish you to take to the Dail of your City of New Sidon and to your United Interplanetary Mining Company.”