The Lani People

by Jesse F. Bone

  CHAPTER XIV

  Kennon was morally certain that the Lani were of human stock. Evolved,of course. Mutated. Genetic strangers to the rest of humanity. Buthuman. The spaceship and the redes proved it as far as he was concerned.But moral certainty and legal certainty were two different things. Whathe believed might be good enough to hold up in a Brotherhood court, buthe doubted it. Ulf and Lyssa might be the founders of the Lani race, butthey had come to Kardon nearly four thousand years ago and no recordsexisted to prove that the Lani weren't here before they came. Redespassed by word of mouth through hundreds of generations were notevidence. Even the spaceship wasn't the absolute proof that would beneeded to overturn the earlier legal decision. Other and betterproof was needed--something that would stand up in any court in theBrotherhood. He hoped the spaceship would hold that proof.

  But Kennon's eagerness to find out what was inside the ancient spacerwas tempered by hard practicality. Too much depended on what he mightfind inside that hull. Every step of the work must be documented beyondany refutation. Some method of establishing date, time, and location hadto be prepared. There must be a record of every action. And that wouldrequire equipment and planning. There must be no mistake that could betwisted by the skillful counsel that Alexander undoubtedly retained.

  He had no doubt that the Family would fight. Too much money andprestige were involved. To prove the Lani human would destroy OutworldEnterprises on Kardon. Yet this thought did not bother him. To hissurprise he had no qualms of conscience. He was perfectly willing toviolate his contract, break faith with his employers, and plot theirruin. The higher duty came first--the duty to the human race.

  He smiled wryly. It wasn't all higher duty. There were some personaldesires that leavened the nobility. To prove Copper human was enoughmotivation--actually it was better than his sense of duty. Events,Kennon reflected, cause a great deal of change in one's attitude.Although not by nature a plotter, schemes had been flitting through hismind with machinelike regularity, to be examined and discarded, or to beset aside for future reference.

  He rejected the direct approach. It was too dangerous, depended too muchon personalities, and had too little chance for success. He consideredthe possibility of letters to the Brotherhood Council but ultimatelyrejected it. Not only was the proof legally insufficient to establishhumanity in the Lani, but he also remembered Alexander's incredibleknowledge of his activities, and there was no reason to suppose thathis present didn't receive the same scrutiny as the past. And if he,who hadn't written a letter in over a year, suddenly began to write, thecorrespondence would undoubtedly be regarded with suspicion and wouldprobably be examined, and Dirac messages would be out for the samereason.

  He could take a vacation and while he was away from the island hecould inform the Brotherhood. Leaving Flora wouldn't be particularlydifficult, but leaving Kardon would be virtually impossible. Hiscontract called for vacations, but it expressly provided that they wouldbe taken on Kardon. And again, there would be no assurance that hisactivities would not be watched. In fact, it was probable that theywould be.

  There was nothing that could be done immediately. But there were certainlong-range measures that could be started. He could begin preparing acase that could be presented to the Council. And Beta, when it knew,would help him. The situation of the Lani was so close to Beta's ownthat its obvious merit as a test case simply could not be ignored. Ifhe could get the evidence to Beta, it would be easy to enlist the aidof the entire Medico-Technological Civilization. It would take time andattention to detail; the case, the evidence, everything would have tobe prepared with every safeguard and contingency provided, so that therewould not be the slightest chance of a slip-up once it came to court.

  And perhaps the best method of bringing the evidence would be totransport it under its own power. The thought intrigued him. Actually itwouldn't be too difficult. Externally the Egg wasn't in bad shape. Thevirtually indestructible durilium hull was still intact. The controlsand the engines, hermetically sealed inside the hull, were probably asgood as the day they stopped running. The circuitry would undoubtedly bebad but it could be repaired and restored, and new fuel slugs could beobtained for the engine and the converter. But that was a problem forthe future.

  The immediate problem was to get into the ship in a properly documentedfashion.

  It took nearly two months, but finally, under the impersonal lenses ofcameras and recorders, the entrance port of the God-Egg swung open andrevealed the dark interior. Kennon moved carefully, recording every stepas he entered the black orifice in the spaceship's side. His handtorchgave plenty of light for the recorders as he moved inside--Copper at hisheels, both of them physically unrecognizable in antiradiation suits.

  "Why are we moving so slowly?" Copper said. "Let's go ahead and find outwhat's beyond this passageway."

  "From a superstitious coward you've certainly become a recklessexplorer," he said.

  "The Egg hasn't hurt us, and we've been around it many times," she said."Either the curse has become too old to hurt us, or there never was anyin the first place. So let's see what is ahead. I'm curious."

  Kennon shook his head. "In this business we must hurry slowly--veryslowly. You know why."

  "But I want to see."

  "Patience, girl. Simmer down. You'll see soon enough," Kennon said. "Nowhelp me set up this camera."

  "Oh, all right--but isn't there any excitement in you?"

  "I'm bubbling over with it," Kennon admitted, "but I manage to keep itunder control."

  "You're cold-blooded."

  "No--I'm sensible. We want to nail this down. My future, yours, and thatof your people depend upon how carefully we work. You wouldn't want tolet us all down by being too eager, would you?"

  She shook her head. "No--you're right of course. But I still would liketo see."

  They moved cautiously through the airlock and into the control room.

  "Ah!" Kennon said with satisfaction. "I hoped for this, but I didn'tdare expect it."

  "What?"

  "Look around. What do you see?"

  "Nothing but an empty room. It's shaped like half an orange, and it hasa lot of funny instruments and dials on the walls, and a video screenoverhead. But that's all. Why--what's so unusual about it? It looks justlike someone had left it."

  "That's the point. There's nothing essential that's missing. They didn'tcannibalize the instruments--and they didn't come back."

  "Why not?"

  "Maybe because that curse you mentioned a few minutes ago was real."

  Copper drew back. "But you said it wouldn't hurt us--"

  "Not now. The heat's practically gone, but when whoever flew this cratecame here, the whole shell could have been as hot as a Samarian summer."

  "But couldn't they have come back when it cooled?"

  "Not with this kind of heat. The hull was probably too radioactive toapproach from the outside. And radioactivity cools off slowly. It mighttake several lifetimes for its level to become low enough to approach ifthere was no decontamination equipment available."

  "I suppose that's why the early ones thought the Egg was cursed."

  Kennon nodded. "Now let's check--oh! oh! what's this?" He pointed to ametal-backed book lying on the control panel.

  "It looks like a book," Copper said.

  "I'm hoping it's the book."

  "The book?"

  "Yes--the ship's log. It's possible. And if it is, we may have all theevidence we need--Copper!--Don't touch it!"

  "Why not?"

  "Because its position has to be recorded first. Wait until we get thecamera and recorders set up."

  * * *

  Gingerly Kennon opened the ancient book. The sheets inside werebrittle--crumbling with age--but he could make out the title U.N.S.S.Wanderer with the date of launching and a lower line which read "Ship'sLog." Kennon was thankful for his medical training. The four yearsof Classical English that he had despised so much were essential now.Stumbling over unfamiliar words and phrases
, he moved slowly throughthe log tracing the old ship's history from pleasure craft to short-haulfreight tractor to obsolescence in a space dump orbiting around a worldcalled Heaven.

  There was a gap of nearly ten years indicated by a blank page before theentries resumed.

  "Ah--this is it!" Kennon said.

  "What is it?" Copper said curiously. "I can't read the writing."

  "Of course you can't. It's in English--a language that becameobsolete during the Interregnum. I had to learn it, since most medicalterminology is based on it."

  "What is an Interregnum?" Copper interrupted. "I've never heard that wordbefore."

  "It's a period of confusion when there is no stable government. The lastone came after the Second Galactic War--but never mind that--it happenedlong ago and isn't important now. The important thing that did happenwas the Exodus."

  "What was that?"

  "A religious revival and a tremendous desire to see what was happeningbeyond the next star. During that century men traveled wider and fartherthen they ever have before or since. In that outward explosion withits mixed motivations of religion and practicality, colonists andmissionaries went starward to find new worlds to tame, and new races tobe rescued from the darkness of idolatry and hell. Almost any sortof vehicle capable of mounting a spindizzy converter was pressed intoservice. The old spindizzies were soundly engineered converters ofalmost childlike simplicity that could and did carry ships enormousdistances if their passengers didn't care about subjective time-lag, anda little radioactivity.

  "And that's what happened to this ship. According to this log it wasbought by Alfred and Melissa Weygand--a missionary couple with the ideaof spreading the Christian faith to the heathen.

  "Alfred and Melissa--Ulf and Lyssa--they were a part of this ancientexplosion that scattered human seed across parsecs of interstellarspace. It seems that they were a unit in a missionary fleet that hadgone out to the stars with flame in their hearts and Gospel on theirlips to bring the Word to the benighted heathen on other worlds."Kennon's lips curled with mild contempt at their stupid foolhardinesseven as his pulse quickened to their bravery. They had been fanatics,true enough, but theirs was a selfless fanaticism that would risktorture and death for what they believed--a fanaticism that was moresublime than the concept of Brotherhood which had evolved from it. Theyknew nothing of the enmity of race, of the incessant struggle manhad since waged with alien intelligences all too willing to destroyintruders who encroached upon their worlds. Mankind's early selflessnesshad long ago been discarded for frank expansionism and dominance overthe lesser races that stood in their way. And in a way it was too bad.

  The ship's log, meticulously kept in neat round English script, told astory that was more than the bare bones of flight. There was passionand tenderness and a spiritual quality that was shocking to a modernman steeped in millennia of conquest and self-interest. There was agreatness to it, a depth of faith that had since been lost. And asKennon slowly deciphered the ancient script he admired the courage evenas his mind winced with dismay at the unheeding recklessness.

  The Weygands had lost contact with the others, and had searched for themin hyperspace, doubling and twisting upon their course until they hadbecome hopelessly lost, and then, with their fuel nearly exhausted, hadbroken out into the normal three-space continuum to find Kardon's sunand the world they called Flora.

  How little they had known and how lucky they had been.

  It was only by the grace of their God that they had found this worldbefore their fuel was exhausted. And it was only by further grace thatthe planet was habitable and not populated with intelligent life. Theyhad more luck than people were entitled to in a dozen lifetimes. Againstodds of a million to one they had survived.

  It was fascinating reading.

  But it was not proof.

  The last entry read: "We have circled this world and have seen nobuildings--no sign of intelligent life. We are lost, marooned on thisempty world. Our fuel supplies are too low for us to attempt to find theothers. Nor could we. The constellations in the sky are strange. We donot know which way to go. Therefore we shall land upon the great islandin the center of the yellow sea. And perhaps someday men will come to ussince we cannot return to them. Melissa thinks that this is an exampleof Divine Providence, that the Lord's mercy has been shown to us thatwere lost in the vastness of the deep--that we have been chosen, likeEve and Adam, to spread the seed of man to yet another world. I hopeshe is right, yet I fear the radiation level of the ship has becomeinordinately high. We may well be Eve and Adam, yet an Adam that cannotbeget and an Eve that is not fruitful. I am trimming the ship forlanding, and we shall leave it immediately after we have landed, takingwith us only what we absolutely need. There is too much radiation fromthe spindizzy and the drive to remain here longer--and God knows how hotthe outer hull may be."

  And that was all. Presumptive evidence--yes. Reasonable certainty--yes.But not proof. Lawyers could argue that since no direct exploration wasmade there was no valid reason to assume that the Lani did not alreadyinhabit Kardon. But Kennon knew. His body, more perceptive than hismind, had realized a truth that his brain would not accept until he readthe log. It was at once joy and frustration. Joy that Copper was human,frustration that he could not obtain for her and her race the rightsto which they were entitled. But the immediate problem was solved. Hisconditioning was broken now he was convinced that Copper was a memberof the human race. It was no violation of his code to love her. Thegreatest barrier was broken, and with it gone the lesser ones wouldyield. Relief that was almost pain washed through him and left him weakwith reaction.

  "What is it?" Copper asked as he turned to her. "What is this thing thathas turned your face to joy?"

  "Can't you guess?"

  She shook her head. "I have seen nothing but you reading this ancientbook, yet you turn to me with the look in your eyes that the redes sayUlf had for Lyssa."

  "You're human!"

  Copper shrugged. "You're mad. I'm a Lani. I was born a Lani--and I shalldie one."

  "Don't you understand? All Lani are human. You all are the descendantsof two humans who came here thousands of years ago."

  "Then there is no reason why you cannot love me."

  Kennon shook his head. "No," he said. "There is no reason."

  Copper laughed. It was a sound so merry and gay that Kennon looked ather in surprise. She looked as happy as she sounded.

  Simple and savage, Kennon thought. She cared nothing for the future, andprobably very little about the injustice of her present. The thing thatmattered was that what had kept them apart was gone. She was probablyoffering mental sacrifices to the Old Ones who had caused this changein the man she loved. She didn't really care about what had caused thechange. To her it was sufficient that it had happened.

  For a moment Kennon wished that it could be as simple for him as itapparently was for her. The fact that Copper was human posed a greaterproblem than the one it solved. The one had been personal. The other wasinfinitely greater. He could not let it lie. The very morality which hadkept him from doing what he wished when he thought she was a humanoidnow forced him to do what he did not wish. Every instinct said to leaveit alone. The problem was too great for one man to solve, the situationtoo complicated, the evidence too inconclusive, the opposition toopowerful. It would be far better to take his happiness and enjoy it.It was not his problem to solve. He could turn the evidence over tothe Brotherhood once his contract was over, and better and more capablepeople than he could settle the Lani legal status. But the inner voicethat had called him bestial now called him shirker, coward, and slacker.And this, too, could not be borne. The case of the Lani would have tobe pursued as vigorously as he could do it. They were entitled to humanrights--whether they wanted them or not.

  His first idea of making the spacer operational was a good one, Kennondecided as they finished the inspection of the ship. Even if it wasnever used it would make a good means of retreat. He grinned wryly. In aguerrilla operation s
uch as the one he was considering it would be wiseto have a way out if things got too hot. The heavy parts, the enginesand the controls, were in workable condition and would merely requirecleaning and oiling. Some of the optical equipment would have to bereplaced and fuel slugs would have to be obtained for the drive--butnone of these would be too hard to accomplish. The slugs from any of thepower reactors on the island would serve nicely. All that would haveto be done would be to modify the fuel ports on the ship's engine. Thespindizzy would have to be disassembled and checked, and the main leads,embedded in time-resistant plastic, would have to be examined. The mostserious problem, however, wouldn't involve these things. The controlboard wiring and circuitry was where the trouble would lie. Normalinsulation and printed circuitry wasn't designed to last for thousandsof years. Each wired circuit would have to be removed, duplicated, andreplaced. Every printed panel would have to be cleaned and receive a newcoat of insulating varnish. Working full time, a four-man electronicsteam could do the job in a week. Working part-time the two of them mightget it done in three months. And the other jobs would take at leastanother. Add a month for errors in judgment, lack of materials, andmistakes--and another for unavoidable delays--it would be at least sixmonths before the Egg would be spaceworthy.

  Six months.

  Not too long if everything went well, but far too long if there wereany mistakes. He would have to be careful, yet he must not give theimpression of being careful. He shook his head. Being a subversive wasgoing to require a greater amount of acting ability than he had everbeen called upon to display.

  And what of Copper? How would she behave under the double strain ofknowledge that she was human and knowledge of the spaceship? Womenweren't noted for their tight-lipped reticence. Would she tell the otherLani? Would she crack under the pressure? Did she have the qualities ofa good conspirator?

  As it turned out, he didn't need to worry. As a partner in crime, Copperwas all that could be wished. Everything was normal. She was stillobedient, helpful, and gay as ever. To watch her, no one would everthink that her bright head was full of knowledge that could rock Florato its foundations. Never by look or word did she betray the slightesttrace of strain or guilt.

  And in her other moments she was ecstatic in her love and helpful withthe repair work on the Egg whenever Kennon could get time to visit theold spaceship.

  "You amaze me," Kennon said as they eased the cover of the spindizzyin place and spun the bolts on the lugs that held it to the outershielding. He picked up a heavy wrench and began methodically to seatthe bolts as Copper wiped the white extrusion of the cover sealant fromthe shining case.

  "How?"

  "The way you hide your knowledge of this ship from the others. I knowyou better than anyone else on this island, and yet you would fool me."

  "We Lani are used to hiding things. You men have been our masters forcenturies, yet you do not know our redes. Nor do you know what we think,We obey you, but there are parts of us you do not own. It is easy tohide a little thing like this."

  Kennon nodded. It figured. He seated another bolt. Three more andthe drive room would be restored and they could start on the controlcircuits. "I wish you were as clever about adopting human customs as youare about hiding guilty knowledge," he said.

  Copper laughed. "You mean those silly things you have been teaching me?Why should I learn them? I'm happy as I am. I love you, you love me, andthat is all that matters."

  "It's not all that matters. Can't you get it through your head thatcivilized customs are necessary in a civilized society?" He gave thenext-to-last bolt an extra-vicious wrench. "You'll have to know them ifyou expect to get along on Beta."

  "But I will never see Beta."

  "I am going there when my duty here is over. And you're going with me."

  "When will that be?"

  "Three years."

  "So long? Well--we can think of it then, but I don't think Man Alexanderwill let you take me."

  "Then I shall take you without his consent."

  She smiled. "It would be easier to stay here. In another fifteen years Iwill be old and you will not want me."

  "I'll never do that. I'll always want you."

  "You swear too easily," she said gently. "You men live forever. We Laniare a short-lived race."

  "But you needn't be. It's obviously--"

  "It's been tried, my love--and those who were treated died. ManAlexander tried many years ago to make us long-lived like you. But hefailed. You see, he loved one of us too."

  "But--"

  "Let us think no more of it. Let us enjoy what we have and be gratefulto the Gods for the love we enjoy--or do you have any Gods?"

  "One."

  "Two are better. More, anyway. And besides, Ulf and Lyssa and theGod-Egg are responsible for our joy."

  "They are indeed," Kennon said.

  "Then why should you think of leaving the place where they rule? Youshould stay here. There will be other Lani when I am gone. You will behappy always."

  "Not without you," Kennon said. "Don't you understand that I love you?"

  "And I you. But I am a Lani. You are a man."

  "You're as human as I am," Kennon said abruptly.

  "That is what you say," Copper replied. "I am not so sure. I need moreproof than this." She waved her hand at the ship.

  "What proof do you need?"

  "The same as the proof you men require. If I should have your child,then I would believe that I was human."

  "I've told you a thousand times that the radiation on this ship musthave affected Ulf and Lyssa's germ plasm. Can't you understand that?"

  "I can understand it all right, but it does not change things. Ulf andLyssa may have been human before they came here, but they were not whenthey landed. They were Lani, and their children were Lani."

  "But they were of human stock."

  "The law that lets men become our masters does not agree with you."

  "Then the law is wrong. It should be changed."

  Copper shrugged. "Two people cannot change a law."

  "They can try--particularly if the law is unjust."

  Copper sighed. "Is it not enough for us to love? Must you try to runthrough a wall?"

  "When the wall stands in the way of right and justice I must."

  Copper looked at him with pity in her green eyes. "This I do notunderstand. I know nothing of right and justice. What are these things?Just words. Yet you will endanger our happiness for them. If it is myhappiness you wish--then leave this foolishness alone. I have fifteenyears I can live with you before I am old and you tire of me. With thoseyears I can be content."

  "But I can't," Kennon said. "Call me selfish if you wish, but I want youwith me as long as I live. I don't want to live my life without you."

  "You want too much," Copper said softly. "But if it makes you happy totry to get it, I shall help. And if we do not succeed you will at leastbe happier for trying. And if you are happy"--she shrugged--"then therest makes little difference."

  That was the crux of the matter, Kennon reflected bitterly. He wasconvinced she was human. She was not. And until her mind could bechanged on that point she would help him but her heart wouldn't be init. And the only thing that would convince her that she was human wouldbe a child--a child of his begetting. He could perhaps trick her withan artificial insemination of Lani sperm. There were drugs that couldsuspend consciousness, hypnotics that would make her believe anythingshe was told while under their influence.

  But in the end it would do no good. All witnesses in Brotherhood courtactions were examined under psychoprobe, and a hypnotic was of no valueagainst a lie detector that could extract the deepest buried truth.And he would be examined too. The truth would out--and nothing would begained. In fact--everything would be lost. The attempt at trickery wouldprejudice any court against the honest evidence they had so painfullycollected.

  He sighed. The only thing to do was to go on as they were--and hope thatthe evidence would hold. With Betan legal talent at thei
r back itmight. And, of course, they could try to produce a child as nature hadintended. They could try--but Kennon knew it would not succeed. It neverhad.