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diff --git a/20649.txt b/20649.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..38dfef7 --- /dev/null +++ b/20649.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2435 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oomphel in the Sky, by Henry Beam Piper + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Oomphel in the Sky + +Author: Henry Beam Piper + +Release Date: February 23, 2007 [EBook #20649] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OOMPHEL IN THE SKY *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, LN Yaddanapudi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + +OOMPHEL ... +... IN THE SKY + +By H. BEAM PIPER + ++--------------------------------------------------------------+ +| | +| Transcriber's Note | +| | +| This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact--Science | +| Fiction, November 1960. Extensive research did not uncover | +| any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was | +| renewed. | +| | ++--------------------------------------------------------------+ + +[Illustration] + + _Since Logic derives from postulates, it never has, and never will, + change a postulate. And a religious belief is a system of + postulates ... so how can a man fight a native superstition with + logic? Or anything else...?_ + +Illustrated by Bernklau + + +Miles Gilbert watched the landscape slide away below him, its quilt of +rounded treetops mottled red and orange in the double sunlight and, in +shaded places, with the natural yellow of the vegetation of Kwannon. The +aircar began a slow swing to the left, and Gettler Alpha came into view, +a monstrous smear of red incandescence with an optical diameter of two +feet at arm's length, slightly flattened on the bottom by the western +horizon. In another couple of hours it would be completely set, but by +that time Beta, the planet's G-class primary, would be at its +midafternoon hottest. He glanced at his watch. It was 1005, but that was +Galactic Standard Time, and had no relevance to anything that was +happening in the local sky. It did mean, though, that it was five +minutes short of two hours to 'cast-time. + +He snapped on the communication screen in front of him, and Harry Walsh, +the news editor, looked out of it at him from the office in Bluelake, +halfway across the continent. He wanted to know how things were going. + +"Just about finished. I'm going to look in at a couple more native +villages, and then I'm going to Sanders' plantation to see Gonzales. I +hope I'll have a personal statement from him, and the final +situation-progress map, in time for the 'cast. I take it Maith's still +agreeable to releasing the story at twelve-hundred?" + +"Sure; he was always agreeable. The Army wants publicity; it was +Government House that wanted to sit on it, and they've given that up +now. The story's all over the place here, native city and all." + +"What's the situation in town, now?" + +"Oh, it's still going on. Some disorders, mostly just unrest. Lot of +street meetings that could have turned into frenzies if the police +hadn't broken them up in time. A couple of shootings, some +sleep-gassing, and a lot of arrests. Nothing to worry about--at least, +not immediately." + +That was about what he thought. "Maybe it's not bad to have a little +trouble in Bluelake," he considered. "What happens out here in the +plantation country the Government House crowd can't see, and it doesn't +worry them. Well, I'll call you from Sanders'." + +He blanked the screen. In the seat in front, the native pilot said: +"Some contragravity up ahead, boss." It sounded like two voices speaking +in unison, which was just what it was. "I'll have a look." + +The pilot's hand, long and thin, like a squirrel's, reached up and +pulled down the fifty-power binoculars on their swinging arm. Miles +looked at the screen-map and saw a native village just ahead of the dot +of light that marked the position of the aircar. He spoke the native +name of the village aloud, and added: + +"Let down there, Heshto. I'll see what's going on." + +The native, still looking through the glasses, said, "Right, boss." Then +he turned. + +His skin was blue-gray and looked like sponge rubber. He was humanoid, +to the extent of being an upright biped, with two arms, a head on top of +shoulders, and a torso that housed, among other oddities, four lungs. +His face wasn't even vaguely human. He had two eyes in front, close +enough for stereoscopic vision, but that was a common characteristic of +sapient life forms everywhere. His mouth was strictly for eating; he +breathed through separate intakes and outlets, one of each on either +side of his neck; he talked through the outlets and had his scent and +hearing organs in the intakes. The car was air-conditioned, which was a +mercy; an overheated Kwann exhaled through his skin, and surrounded +himself with stenches like an organic chemistry lab. But then, Kwanns +didn't come any closer to him than they could help when he was hot and +sweated, which, lately, had been most of the time. + +"A V and a half of air cavalry, circling around," Heshto said. "Making +sure nobody got away. And a combat car at a couple of hundred feet and +another one just at treetop level." + +He rose and went to the seat next to the pilot, pulling down the +binoculars that were focused for his own eyes. With them, he could see +the air cavalry--egg-shaped things just big enough for a seated man, +with jets and contragravity field generators below and a bristle of +machine gun muzzles in front. A couple of them jetted up for a look at +him and then went slanting down again, having recognized the Kwannon +Planetwide News Service car. + + +The village was typical enough to have been an illustration in a +sociography textbook--fields in a belt for a couple of hundred yards +around it, dome-thatched mud-and-wattle huts inside a pole stockade with +log storehouses built against it, their flat roofs high enough to +provide platforms for defending archers, the open oval gathering-place +in the middle. There was a big hut at one end of this, the khamdoo, the +sanctum of the adult males, off limits for women and children. A small +crowd was gathered in front of it; fifteen or twenty Terran air +cavalrymen, a couple of enlisted men from the Second Kwannon Native +Infantry, a Terran second lieutenant, and half a dozen natives. The rest +of the village population, about two hundred, of both sexes and all +ages, were lined up on the shadier side of the gathering-place, most of +them looking up apprehensively at the two combat cars which were +covering them with their guns. + +Miles got to his feet as the car lurched off contragravity and the +springs of the landing-feet took up the weight. A blast of furnacelike +air struck him when he opened the door; he got out quickly and closed it +behind him. The second lieutenant had come over to meet him; he extended +his hand. + +"Good day, Mr. Gilbert. We all owe you our thanks for the warning. This +would have been a real baddie if we hadn't caught it when we did." + +He didn't even try to make any modest disclaimer; that was nothing more +than the exact truth. + +"Well, lieutenant, I see you have things in hand here." He glanced at +the line-up along the side of the oval plaza, and then at the selected +group in front of the khamdoo. The patriarchal village chieftain in a +loose slashed shirt; the shoonoo, wearing a multiplicity of amulets and +nothing else; four or five of the village elders. "I take it the word of +the swarming didn't get this far?" + +"No, this crowd still don't know what the flap's about, and I couldn't +think of anything to tell them that wouldn't be worse than no +explanation at all." + +He had noticed hoes and spades flying in the fields, and the cylindrical +plastic containers the natives bought from traders, dropped when the +troops had surprised the women at work. And the shoonoo didn't have a +fire-dance cloak or any other special regalia on. If he'd heard about +the swarming, he'd have been dressed to make magic for it. + +"What time did you get here, lieutenant?" + +"Oh-nine-forty. I just called in and reported the village occupied, and +they told me I was the last one in, so the operation's finished." + +That had been smart work. He got the lieutenant's name and unit and +mentioned it into his memophone. That had been a little under five hours +since he had convinced General Maith, in Bluelake, that the mass +labor-desertion from the Sanders plantation had been the beginning of a +swarming. Some division commanders wouldn't have been able to get a +brigade off the ground in that time, let alone landed on objective. He +said as much to the young officer. + +"The way the Army responded, today, can make the people of the Colony +feel a lot more comfortable for the future." + +"Why, thank you, Mr. Gilbert." The Army, on Kwannon, was rather more +used to obloquy than praise. "How did you spot what was going on so +quickly?" + +This was the hundredth time, at least, that he had been asked that +today. + +"Well, Paul Sanders' labor all comes from neighboring villages. If +they'd just wanted to go home and spend the end of the world with their +families, they'd have been dribbling away in small batches for the last +couple of hundred hours. Instead, they all bugged out in a bunch, they +took all the food they could carry and nothing else, and they didn't +make any trouble before they left. Then, Sanders said they'd been +building fires out in the fallow ground and moaning and chanting around +them for a couple of days, and idling on the job. Saving their strength +for the trek. And he said they had a shoonoo among them. He's probably +the lad who started it. Had a dream from the Gone Ones, I suppose." + +"You mean, like this fellow here?" the lieutenant asked. "What are they, +Mr. Gilbert; priests?" + +He looked quickly at the lieutenant's collar-badges. Yellow trefoil for +Third Fleet-Army Force, Roman IV for Fourth Army, 907 for his regiment, +with C under it for cavalry. That outfit had only been on Kwannon for +the last two thousand hours, but somebody should have briefed him better +than that. + +He shook his head. "No, they're magicians. Everything these Kwanns do +involves magic, and the shoonoon are the professionals. When a native +runs into something serious, that his own do-it-yourself magic can't +cope with, he goes to the shoonoo. And, of course, the shoonoo works all +the magic for the community as a whole--rain-magic, protective magic for +the village and the fields, that sort of thing." + +The lieutenant mopped his face on a bedraggled handkerchief. "They'll +have to struggle along somehow for a while; we have orders to round up +all the shoonoon and send them in to Bluelake." + +"Yes." That hadn't been General Maith's idea; the governor had insisted +on that. "I hope it doesn't make more trouble than it prevents." + +The lieutenant was still mopping his face and looking across the +gathering-place toward Alpha, glaring above the huts. + +"How much worse do you think this is going to get?" he asked. + +"The heat, or the native troubles?" + +"I was thinking about the heat, but both." + +"Well, it'll get hotter. Not much hotter, but some. We can expect +storms, too, within twelve to fifteen hundred hours. Nobody has any idea +how bad they'll be. The last periastron was ninety years ago, and we've +only been here for sixty-odd; all we have is verbal accounts from memory +from the natives, probably garbled and exaggerated. We had pretty bad +storms right after transit a year ago; they'll be much worse this time. +Thermal convections; air starts to cool when it gets dark, and then +heats up again in double-sun daylight." + +It was beginning, even now; starting to blow a little after Alpha-rise. + +"How about the natives?" the lieutenant asked. "If they can get any +crazier than they are now--" + +"They can, and they probably will. They think this is the end of the +world. The Last Hot Time." He used the native expression, and then +translated it into Lingua Terra. "The Sky Fire--that's Alpha--will burn +up the whole world." + +"But this happens every ninety years. Mean they always acted this way at +periastron?" + +He shook his head. "Race would have exterminated itself long ago if they +had. No, this is something special. The coming of the Terrans was a +sign. The Terrans came and brought oomphel to the world; this a sign +that the Last Hot Time is at hand." + +"What the devil _is_ oomphel?" The lieutenant was mopping the back of +his neck with one hand, now, and trying to pull his sticky tunic loose +from his body with the other. "I hear that word all the time." + +"Well, most Terrans, including the old Kwannon hands, use it to mean +trade-goods. To the natives, it means any product of Terran technology, +from paper-clips to spaceships. They think it's ... well, not exactly +supernatural; extranatural would be closer to expressing their idea. +Terrans are natural; they're just a different kind of people. But +oomphel isn't; it isn't subject to any of the laws of nature at all. +They're all positive that we don't make it. Some of them even think it +makes us." + + +When he got back in the car, the native pilot, Heshto, was lolling in +his seat and staring at the crowd of natives along the side of the +gathering-place with undisguised disdain. Heshto had been educated at +one of the Native Welfare Commission schools, and post-graded with +Kwannon Planetwide News. He could speak, read and write Lingua Terra. He +was a mathematician as far as long division and decimal fractions. He +knew that Kwannon was the second planet of the Gettler Beta system, +23,000 miles in circumference, rotating on its axis once in 22.8 +Galactic Standard hours and making an orbital circuit around Gettler +Beta once in 372.06 axial days, and that Alpha was an M-class pulsating +variable with an average period of four hundred days, and that Beta +orbited around it in a long elipse every ninety years. He didn't believe +there was going to be a Last Hot Time. He was an intellectual, he was. + +He started the contragravity-field generator as soon as Miles was in his +seat. "Where now, boss?" he asked. + +"Qualpha's Village. We won't let down; just circle low over it. I want +some views of the ruins. Then to Sanders' plantation." + +"O.K., boss; hold tight." + +He had the car up to ten thousand feet. Aiming it in the map direction +of Qualpha's Village, he let go with everything he had--hot jets, +rocket-booster and all. The forest landscape came hurtling out of the +horizon toward them. + +Qualpha's was where the trouble had first broken out, after the bug-out +from Sanders; the troops hadn't been able to get there in time, and it +had been burned. Another village, about the same distance south of the +plantation, had also gone up in flames, and at a dozen more they had +found the natives working themselves into frenzies and had had to +sleep-gas them or stun them with concussion-bombs. Those had been the +villages to which the deserters from Sanders' had themselves gone; from +every one, runners had gone out to neighboring villages--"The Gone Ones +are returning; all the People go to greet them at the Deesha-Phoo. Burn +your villages; send on the word. Hasten; the Gone Ones return!" + +Saving some of those villages had been touch-and-go, too; the runners, +with hours lead-time, had gotten there ahead of the troops, and there +had been shooting at a couple of them. Then the Army contragravity began +landing at villages that couldn't have been reached in hours by foot +messengers. It had been stopped--at least for the time, and in this +area. When and where another would break out was anybody's guess. + +The car was slowing and losing altitude, and ahead he could see thin +smoke rising above the trees. He moved forward beside the pilot and +pulled down his glasses; with them he could distinguish the ruins of the +village. He called Bluelake, and then put his face to the view-finder +and began transmitting in the view. + + +It had been a village like the one he had just visited, mud-and-wattle +huts around an oval gathering-place, stockade, and fields beyond. Heshto +brought the car down to a few hundred feet and came coasting in on +momentum helped by an occasional spurt of the cold-jets. A few sections +of the stockade still stood, and one side of the khamdoo hadn't fallen, +but the rest of the structures were flat. There wasn't a soul, human or +parahuman, in sight; the only living thing was a small black-and-gray +quadruped investigating some bundles that had been dropped in the +fields, in hope of finding something tasty. He got a view of +that--everybody liked animal pictures on a newscast--and then he was +swinging the pickup over the still-burning ruins. In the ashes of every +hut he could see the remains of something like a viewscreen or a +nuclear-electric stove or a refrigerator or a sewing machine. He knew +how dearly the Kwanns cherished such possessions. That they had +destroyed them grieved him. But the Last Hot Time was at hand; the whole +world would be destroyed by fire, and then the Gone Ones would return. + +So there were uprisings on the plantations. Paul Sanders had been +lucky; his Kwanns had just picked up and left. But he had always gotten +along well with the natives, and his plantation house was literally a +castle and he had plenty of armament. There had been other planters who +had made the double mistake of incurring the enmity of their native +labor and of living in unfortified houses. A lot of them weren't around, +any more, and their plantations were gutted ruins. + +And there were plantations on which the natives had destroyed the klooba +plants and smashed the crystal which lived symbiotically upon them. They +thought the Terrans were using the living crystals to make magic. Not +too far off, at that; the properties of Kwannon biocrystals had opened a +major breakthrough in subnucleonic physics and initiated half a dozen +technologies. New kinds of oomphel. And down in the south, where the +spongy and resinous trees were drying in the heat, they were starting +forest fires and perishing in them in hecatombs. And to the north, they +were swarming into the mountains; building great fires there, too, and +attacking the Terran radar and radio beacons. + +Fire was a factor common to all these frenzies. Nothing could happen +without magical assistance; the way to bring on the Last Hot Time was +People. + +Maybe the ones who died in the frenzies and the swarmings were the lucky +ones at that. They wouldn't live to be crushed by disappointment when +the Sky Fire receded as Beta went into the long swing toward apastron. +The surviving shoonoon wouldn't be the lucky ones, that was for sure. +The magician-in-public-practice needs only to make one really bad +mistake before he is done to some unpleasantly ingenious death by his +clientry, and this was going to turn out to be the biggest +magico-prophetic blooper in all the long unrecorded history of Kwannon. + +A few minutes after the car turned south from the ruined village, he +could see contragravity-vehicles in the air ahead, and then the fields +and buildings of the Sanders plantation. A lot more contragravity was +grounded in the fallow fields, and there were rows of pneumatic +balloon-tents, and field-kitchens, and a whole park of engineering +equipment. Work was going on in the klooba-fields, too; about three +hundred natives were cutting open the six-foot leafy balls and getting +out the biocrystals. Three of the plantation airjeeps, each with a pair +of machine guns, were guarding them, but they didn't seem to be having +any trouble. He saw Sanders in another jeep, and had Heshto put the car +alongside. + +"How's it going, Paul?" he asked over his radio. "I see you have some +help, now." + +"Everybody's from Qualpha's, and from Darshat's," Sanders replied. "The +Army had no place to put them, after they burned themselves out." He +laughed happily. "Miles, I'm going to save my whole crop! I thought I +was wiped out, this morning." + +He would have been, if Gonzales hadn't brought those Kwanns in. The +klooba was beginning to wither; if left unharvested, the biocrystals +would die along with their hosts and crack into worthlessness. Like all +the other planters, Sanders had started no new crystals since the hot +weather, and would start none until the worst of the heat was over. He'd +need every crystal he could sell to tide him over. + +[Illustration] + +"The Welfarers'll make a big forced-labor scandal out of this," he +predicted. + +"Why, such an idea." Sanders was scandalized. "I'm not forcing them to +eat." + +"The Welfarers don't think anybody ought to have to work to eat. They +think everybody ought to be fed whether they do anything to earn it or +not, and if you try to make people earn their food, you're guilty of +economic coercion. And if you're in business for yourself and want them +to work for you, you're an exploiter and you ought to be eliminated as a +class. Haven't you been trying to run a plantation on this planet, under +this Colonial Government, long enough to have found that out, Paul?" + + +Brigadier General Ramon Gonzales had taken over the first--counting +down from the landing-stage--floor of the plantation house for his +headquarters. His headquarters company had pulled out removable +partitions and turned four rooms into one, and moved in enough screens +and teleprinters and photoprint machines and computers to have outfitted +the main newsroom of _Planetwide News_. The place had the feel of a +newsroom--a newsroom after a big story has broken and the 'cast has gone +on the air and everybody--in this case about twenty Terran officers and +non-coms, half women--standing about watching screens and smoking and +thinking about getting a follow-up ready. + +Gonzales himself was relaxing in Sanders' business-room, with his belt +off and his tunic open. He had black eyes and black hair and mustache, +and a slightly equine face that went well with his Old Terran Spanish +name. There was another officer with him, considerably younger--Captain +Foxx Travis, Major General Maith's aide. + +"Well, is there anything we can do for you, Miles?" Gonzales asked, +after they had exchanged greetings and sat down. + +"Why, could I have your final situation-progress map? And would you be +willing to make a statement on audio-visual." He looked at his watch. +"We have about twenty minutes before the 'cast." + +"You have a map," Gonzales said, as though he were walking tiptoe from +one word to another. "It accurately represents the situation as of the +moment, but I'm afraid some minor unavoidable inaccuracies may have +crept in while marking the positions and times for the earlier phases of +the operation. I teleprinted a copy to _Planetwide_ along with the one I +sent to Division Headquarters." + +He understood about that and nodded. Gonzales was zipping up his tunic +and putting on his belt and sidearm. That told him, before the brigadier +general spoke again, that he was agreeable to the audio-visual +appearance and statement. He called the recording studio at _Planetwide_ +while Gonzales was inspecting himself in the mirror and told them to get +set for a recording. It only ran a few minutes; Gonzales, speaking +without notes, gave a brief description of the operation. + +"At present," he concluded, "we have every native village and every +plantation and trading-post within two hundred miles of the Sanders +plantation occupied. We feel that this swarming has been definitely +stopped, but we will continue the occupation for at least the next +hundred to two hundred hours. In the meantime, the natives in the +occupied villages are being put to work building shelters for themselves +against the anticipated storms." + +"I hadn't heard about that," Miles said, as the general returned to his +chair and picked up his drink again. + +"Yes. They'll need something better than these thatched huts when the +storms start, and working on them will keep them out of mischief. +Standard megaton-kilometer field shelters, earth and log construction. I +think they'll be adequate for anything that happens at periastron." + +Anything designed to resist the heat, blast and radiation effects of a +megaton thermonuclear bomb at a kilometer ought to stand up under what +was coming. At least, the periastron effects; there was another angle to +it. + +"The Native Welfare Commission isn't going to take kindly to that. +That's supposed to be their job." + +"Then why the devil haven't they done it?" Gonzales demanded angrily. +"I've viewed every native village in this area by screen, and I haven't +seen one that's equipped with anything better than those log +storage-bins against the stockades." + +"There was a project to provide shelters for the periastron storms set +up ten years ago. They spent one year arguing about how the natives +survived storms prior to the Terrans' arrival here. According to the +older natives, they got into those log storage-houses you were +mentioning; only about one out of three in any village survived. I could +have told them that. Did tell them, repeatedly, on the air. Then, after +they decided that shelters were needed, they spent another year hassling +over who would be responsible for designing them. Your predecessor here, +General Nokami, offered the services of his engineer officers. He was +frostily informed that this was a humanitarian and not a military +project." + + +Ramon Gonzales began swearing, then apologized for the interruption. +"Then what?" he asked. + +"Apology unnecessary. Then they did get a shelter designed, and started +teaching some of the students at the native schools how to build them, +and then the meteorologists told them it was no good. It was a dugout +shelter; the weathermen said there'd be rainfall measured in meters +instead of inches and anybody who got caught in one of those dugouts +would be drowned like a rat." + +"Ha, I thought of that one." Gonzales said. "My shelters are going to be +mounded up eight feet above the ground." + +"What did they do then?" Foxx Travis wanted to know. + +"There the matter rested. As far as I know, nothing has been done on it +since." + +"And you think, with a disgraceful record of non-accomplishment like +that, that they'll protest General Gonzales' action on purely +jurisdictional grounds?" Travis demanded. + +"Not jurisdictional grounds, Foxx. The general's going at this the wrong +way. He actually knows what has to be done and how to do it, and he's +going right ahead and doing it, without holding a dozen conferences and +round-table discussions and giving everybody a fair and equal chance to +foul things up for him. You know as well as I do that that's +undemocratic. And what's worse, he's making the natives build them +themselves, whether they want to or not, and that's forced labor. That +reminds me; has anybody started raising the devil about those Kwanns +from Qualpha's and Darshat's you brought here and Paul put to work?" + +Gonzales looked at Travis and then said: "Not with me. Not yet, anyhow." + +"They've been at General Maith," Travis said shortly. After a moment, +he added: "General Maith supports General Gonzales completely; that's +for publication. I'm authorized to say so. What else was there to do? +They'd burned their villages and all their food stores. They had to be +placed somewhere. And why in the name of reason should they sit around +in the shade eating Government native-type rations while Paul Sanders +has fifty to a hundred thousand sols' worth of crystals dying on him?" + +"Yes; that's another thing they'll scream about. Paul's making a profit +out of it." + +"Of course he's making a profit," Gonzales said. "Why else is he running +a plantation? If planters didn't make profits, who'd grow biocrystals?" + +"The Colonial Government. The same way they built those storm-shelters. +But that would be in the public interest, and if the Kwanns weren't +public-spirited enough to do the work, they'd be made to--at about half +what planters like Sanders are paying them now. But don't you realize +that profit is sordid and dishonest and selfish? Not at all like drawing +a salary-cum-expense-account from the Government." + +"You're right, it isn't," Gonzales agreed. "People like Paul Sanders +have ability. If they don't, they don't stay in business. You have +ability and people who don't never forgive you for it. Your very +existence is a constant reproach to them." + +"That's right. And they can't admit your ability without admitting their +own inferiority, so it isn't ability at all. It's just dirty underhanded +trickery and selfish ruthlessness." He thought for a moment. "How did +Government House find out about these Kwanns here?" + +"The Welfare Commission had people out while I was still setting up +headquarters," Gonzales said. "That was about oh-seven-hundred." + +"This isn't for publication?" Travis asked. "Well, they know, but they +can't prove, that our given reason for moving in here in force is false. +Of course, we can't change our story now; that's why the +situation-progress map that was prepared for publication is incorrect as +to the earlier phases. They do not know that it was you who gave us our +first warning; they ascribe that to Sanders. And they are claiming that +there never was any swarming; according to them, Sanders' natives are +striking for better pay and conditions, and Sanders got General Maith to +use troops to break the strike. I wish we could give you credit for +putting us onto this, but it's too late now." + +He nodded. The story was that a battalion of infantry had been sent in +to rescue a small detail under attack by natives, and that more troops +had been sent in to re-enforce them, until the whole of Gonzales' +brigade had been committed. + +"That wasted an hour, at the start," Gonzales said. "We lost two native +villages burned, and about two dozen casualties, because we couldn't get +our full strength in soon enough." + +"You'd have lost more than that if Maith had told the governor general +the truth and requested orders to act. There'd be a hundred villages and +a dozen plantations and trading posts burning, now, and Lord knows how +many dead, and the governor general would still be arguing about whether +he was justified in ordering troop-action." He mentioned several other +occasions when something like that had happened. "You can't tell that +kind of people the truth. They won't believe it. It doesn't agree with +their preconceptions." + + +Foxx Travis nodded. "I take it we are still talking for nonpublication?" +When Miles nodded, he continued: "This whole situation is baffling, +Miles. It seems that the government here knew all about the weather +conditions they could expect at periastron, and had made plans for them. +Some of them excellent plans, too, but all based on the presumption that +the natives would co-operate or at least not obstruct. You see what the +situation actually is. It should be obvious to everybody that the +behavior of these natives is nullifying everything the civil government +is trying to do to ensure the survival of the Terran colonists, the +production of Terran-type food without which we would all starve, the +biocrystal plantations without which the Colony would perish, and even +the natives themselves. Yet the Civil Government will not act to stop +these native frenzies and swarmings which endanger everything and +everybody here, and when the Army attempts to act, we must use every +sort of shabby subterfuge and deceit or the Civil Government will +prevent us. What ails these people?" + +"You have the whole history of the Colony against you, Foxx," he said. +"You know, there never was any Chartered Kwannon Company set up to +exploit the resources of the planet. At first, nobody realized that there +were any resources worth exploiting. This planet was just a scientific +curiosity; it was and is still the only planet of a binary system with a +native population of sapient beings. The first people who came here were +scientists, mostly sociographers and para-anthropologists. And most of +them came from the University of Adelaide." + +Travis nodded. Adelaide had a Federation-wide reputation for left-wing +neo-Marxist "liberalism." + +"Well, that established the political and social orientation of the +Colonial Government, right at the start, when study of the natives was +the only business of the Colony. You know how these ideological cliques +form in a government--or any other organization. Subordinates are always +chosen for their agreement with the views of their superiors, and the +extremists always get to the top and shove the moderates under or out. +Well, the Native Affairs Administration became the tail that wagged the +Government dog, and the Native Welfare Commission is the big muscle in +the tail." + +His parents hadn't been of the left-wing Adelaide clique. His mother +had been a biochemist; his father a roving news correspondent who had +drifted into trading with the natives and made a fortune in keffa-gum +before the chemists on Terra had found out how to synthesize hopkinsine. + +"When the biocrystals were discovered and the plantations started, the +Government attitude was set. Biocrystal culture is just sordid money +grubbing. The real business of the Colony is to promote the betterment +of the natives, as defined in University of Adelaide terms. That's to +say, convert them into ersatz Terrans. You know why General Maith +ordered these shoonoon rounded up?" + +Travis made a face. "Governor general Kovac insisted on it; General +Maith thought that a few minor concessions would help him on his main +objective, which was keeping a swarming from starting out here." + +"Yes. The Commissioner of Native Welfare wanted that done, mainly at the +urging of the Director of Economic, Educational and Technical +Assistance. The EETA crowd don't like shoonoon. They have been trying, +ever since their agency was set up, to undermine and destroy their +influence with the natives. This looked like a good chance to get rid of +some of them." + +Travis nodded. "Yes. And as soon as the disturbances in Bluelake +started, the Constabulary started rounding them up there, too, and at +the evacuee cantonments. They got about fifty of them, mostly from the +cantonments east of the city--the natives brought in from the flooded +tidewater area. They just dumped the lot of them onto us. We have them +penned up in a lorry-hangar on the military reservation now." He turned +to Gonzales. "How many do you think you'll gather up out here, general?" +he asked. + +"I'd say about a hundred and fifty, when we have them all." + +Travis groaned. "We can't keep all of them in that hangar, and we don't +have anywhere else--" + +Sometimes a new idea sneaked up on Miles, rubbing against him and +purring like a cat. Sometimes one hit him like a sledgehammer. This one +just seemed to grow inside him. + +"Foxx, you know I have the top three floors of the Suzikami Building; +about five hundred hours ago, I leased the fourth and fifth floors, +directly below. I haven't done anything with them, yet; they're just as +they were when Trans-Space Imports moved out. There are ample water, +light, power, air-conditioning and toilet facilities, and they can be +sealed off completely from the rest of the building. If General Maith's +agreeable, I'll take his shoonoon off his hands." + +"What in blazes will you do with them?" + +"Try a little experiment in psychological warfare. At minimum, we may +get a little better insight into why these natives think the Last Hot +Time is coming. At best, we may be able to stop the whole thing and get +them quieted down again." + +"Even the minimum's worth trying for," Travis said. "What do you have in +mind, Miles? I mean, what procedure?" + +"Well, I'm not quite sure, yet." That was a lie; he was very sure. He +didn't think it was quite time to be specific, though. "I'll have to +size up my material a little, before I decide on what to do with it. +Whatever happens, it won't hurt the shoonoon, and it won't make any more +trouble than arresting them has made already. I'm sure we can learn +something from them, at least." + +Travis nodded. "General Maith is very much impressed with your grasp of +native psychology," he said. "What happened out here this morning was +exactly as you predicted. Whatever my recommendation's worth, you have +it. Can you trust your native driver to take your car back to Bluelake +alone?" + +"Yes, of course." + +"Then suppose you ride in with me in my car. We'll talk about it on the +way in, and go see General Maith at once." + + +Bluelake was peaceful as they flew in over it, but it was an uneasy +peace. They began running into military contragravity twenty miles +beyond the open farmlands--they were the chlorophyll green of Terran +vegetation--and the natives at work in the fields were being watched by +more military and police vehicles. The carniculture plants, where +Terran-type animal tissue was grown in nutrient-vats, were even more +heavily guarded, and the native city was being patroled from above and +the streets were empty, even of the hordes of native children who +usually played in them. + +The Terran city had no streets. Its dwellers moved about on +contragravity, and tall buildings rose, singly or in clumps, among the +landing-staged residences and the green transplanted trees. There was a +triple wire fence around it, the inner one masked by vines and the +middle one electrified, with warning lights on. Even a government +dedicated to the betterment of the natives and unwilling to order +military action against them was, it appeared, unwilling to take too +many chances. + +Major General Denis Maith, the Federation Army commander on Kwannon, was +considerably more than willing to find a temporary home for his witch +doctors, now numbering close to two hundred. He did insist that they be +kept under military guard, and on assigning his aide, Captain Travis, to +co-operate on the project. Beyond that, he gave Miles a free hand. + +Miles and Travis got very little rest in the next ten hours. A +half-company of engineer troops was also kept busy, as were a number of +Kwannon Planetwide News technicians and some Terran and native mechanics +borrowed from different private business concerns in the city. Even the +most guarded hints of what he had in mind were enough to get this last +co-operation; he had been running a news-service in Bluelake long enough +to have the confidence of the business people. + +He tried, as far as possible, to keep any intimation of what was going +on from Government House. That, unfortunately, hadn't been far enough. +He found that out when General Maith was on his screen, in the middle of +the work on the fourth and fifth floors of the Suzikami Building. + +"The governor general just screened me," Maith said. "He's in a tizzy +about our shoonoon. Claims that keeping them in the Suzikami Building +will endanger the whole Terran city." + +"Is that the best he can do? Well, that's rubbish, and he knows it. +There are less than two hundred of them, I have them on the fifth floor, +twenty stories above the ground, and the floor's completely sealed off +from the floor below. They can't get out, and I have tanks of sleep-gas +all over the place which can be opened either individually or all +together from a switch on the fourth floor, where your sepoys are +quartered." + +"I know, Mr. Gilbert; I screen-viewed the whole installation. I've seen +regular maximum-security prisons that would be easier to get out of." + +"Governor general Kovac is not objecting personally. He has been +pressured into it by this Native Welfare government-within-the-Government. +They don't know what I'm doing with those shoonoon, but whatever it is, +they're afraid of it." + +"Well, for the present," Maith said, "I think I'm holding them off. The +Civil Government doesn't want the responsibility of keeping them in +custody, I refused to assume responsibility for them if they were kept +anywhere else, and Kovac simply won't consider releasing them, so that +leaves things as they are. I did have to make one compromise, though." +That didn't sound good. It sounded less so when Maith continued: "They +insisted on having one of their people at the Suzikami Building as an +observer. I had to grant that." + +"That's going to mean trouble." + +"Oh, I shouldn't think so. This observer will observe, and nothing else. +She will take no part in anything you're doing, will voice no +objections, and will not interrupt anything you are saying to the +shoonoon. I was quite firm on that, and the governor general agreed +completely." + +"She?" + +"Yes. A Miss Edith Shaw; do you know anything about her?" + +"I've met her a few times; cocktail parties and so on." She was young +enough, and new enough to Kwannon, not to have a completely indurated +mind. On the other hand, she was EETA which was bad, and had a master's +in sociography from Adelaide, which was worse. "When can I look for +her?" + +"Well, the governor general's going to screen me and find out when +you'll have the shoonoon on hand." + +Doesn't want to talk to me at all, Miles thought. Afraid he might say +something and get quoted. + +"For your information, they'll be here inside an hour. They will have to +eat, and they're all tired and sleepy. I should say 'bout +oh-eight-hundred. Oh, and will you tell the governor general to tell +Miss Shaw to bring an overnight kit with her. She's going to need it." + + +He was up at 0400, just a little after Beta-rise. He might be a +civilian big-wheel in an Army psychological warfare project, but he +still had four newscasts a day to produce. He spent a couple of hours +checking the 0600 'cast and briefing Harry Walsh for the indeterminate +period in which he would be acting chief editor and producer. At 0700, +Foxx Travis put in an appearance. They went down to the fourth floor, to +the little room they had fitted out as command-post, control room and +office for Operation Shoonoo. + +There was a rectangular black traveling-case, initialed E. S., beside +the open office door. Travis nodded at it, and they grinned at one +another; she'd come early, possibly hoping to catch them hiding +something they didn't want her to see. Entering the office quietly, they +found her seated facing the big viewscreen, smoking and watching a +couple of enlisted men of the First Kwannon Native Infantry at work in +another room where the pickup was. There were close to a dozen +lipstick-tinted cigarette butts in the ashtray beside her. Her private +face wasn't particularly happy. Maybe she was being earnest and +concerned about the betterment of the underpriviledged, or the satanic +maneuvers of the selfish planters. + +Then she realized that somebody had entered; with a slight start, she +turned, then rose. She was about the height of Foxx Travis, a few inches +shorter than Miles, and slender. Light blond; green suit costume. She +ditched her private face and got on her public one, a pleasant and +deferential smile, with a trace of uncertainty behind it. Miles +introduced Travis, and they sat down again facing the screen. + +It gave a view, from one of the long sides and near the ceiling, of a +big room. In the center, a number of seats--the drum-shaped cushions the +natives had adopted in place of the seats carved from sections of tree +trunk that they had been using when the Terrans had come to +Kwannon--were arranged in a semicircle, one in the middle slightly in +advance of the others. Facing them were three armchairs, a +remote-control box beside one and another Kwann cushion behind and +between the other two. There was a large globe of Kwannon, and on the +wall behind the chairs an array of viewscreens. + +"There'll be an interpreter, a native Army sergeant, between you and +Captain Travis," he said. "I don't know how good you are with native +languages, Miss Shaw; the captain is not very fluent." + +"Cushions for them, I see, and chairs for the lordly Terrans," she +commented. "Never miss a chance to rub our superiority in, do you?" + +"I never deliberately force them to adopt our ways," he replied. "Our +chairs are as uncomfortable for them as their low seats are for us. +Difference, you know, doesn't mean inferiority or superiority. It just +means difference." + +"Well, what are you trying to do, here?" + +"I'm trying to find out a little more about the psychology back of +these frenzies and swarmings." + +"It hasn't occurred to you to look for them in the economic wrongs these +people are suffering at the hands of the planters and traders, I +suppose." + +"So they're committing suicide, and that's all you can call these +swarmings, and the fire-frenzies in the south, from economic motives," +Travis said. "How does one better oneself economically by dying?" + +She ignored the question, which was easier than trying to answer it. + + +"And why are you bothering to talk to these witch doctors? They aren't +representative of the native people. They're a lot of cynical +charlatans, with a vested interest in ignorance and superstition--" + +"Miss Shaw, for the past eight centuries, earnest souls have been +bewailing the fact that progress in the social sciences has always +lagged behind progress in the physical sciences. I would suggest that +the explanation might be in difference of approach. The physical +scientist works _with_ physical forces, even when he is trying, as in +the case of contragravity, to nullify them. The social scientist works +_against_ social forces." + +"And the result's usually a miserable failure, even on the +physical-accomplishment level," Foxx Travis added. "This storm shelter +project that was set up ten years ago and got nowhere, for instance. +Ramon Gonzales set up a shelter project of his own seventy-five hours +ago, and he's half through with it now." + +"Yes, by forced labor!" + +"Field surgery's brutal, too, especially when the anaesthetics run out. +It's better than letting your wounded die, though." + +"Well, we were talking about these shoonoon. They are a force among the +natives; that can't be denied. So, since we want to influence the +natives, why not use them?" + +"Mr. Gilbert, these shoonoon are blocking everything we are trying to do +for the natives. If you use them for propaganda work in the villages, +you will only increase their prestige and make it that much harder for +us to better the natives' condition, both economically and +culturally--" + +"That's it, Miles," Travis said. "She isn't interested in facts about +specific humanoid people on Kwannon. She has a lot of high-order +abstractions she got in a classroom at Adelaide on Terra." + +"No. Her idea of bettering the natives' condition is to rope in a lot of +young Kwanns, put them in Government schools, overload them with +information they aren't prepared to digest, teach them to despise their +own people, and then send them out to the villages, where they behave +with such insufferable arrogance that the wonder is that so few of them +stop an arrow or a charge of buckshot, instead of so many. And when that +happens, as it does occasionally, Welfare says they're murdered at the +instigation of the shoonoon." + +"You know, Miss Shaw, this isn't just the roughneck's scorn for the +egghead," Travis said. "Miles went to school on Terra, and majored in +extraterrestrial sociography, and got a master's, just like you did. At +Montevideo," he added. "And he spent two more years traveling on a Paula +von Schlicten Fellowship." + + +Edith Shaw didn't say anything. She even tried desperately not to look +impressed. It occurred to him that he'd never mentioned that fellowship +to Travis. Army Intelligence must have a pretty good _dossier_ on him. +Before anybody could say anything further, a Terran captain and a native +sergeant of the First K.N.I. came in. In the screen, the four sepoys who +had been fussing around straightening things picked up auto-carbines and +posted themselves two on either side of a door across from the pickup, +taking positions that would permit them to fire into whatever came +through without hitting each other. + +What came through was one hundred and eighty-four shoonoon. Some wore +robes of loose gauze strips, and some wore fire-dance cloaks of red and +yellow and orange ribbons. Many were almost completely naked, but they +were all amulet-ed to the teeth. There must have been a couple of miles +of brass and bright-alloy wire among them, and half a ton of bright +scrap-metal, and the skulls, bones, claws, teeth, tails and other +components of most of the native fauna. They debouched into the big +room, stopped, and stood looking around them. A native sergeant and a +couple more sepoys followed. They got the shoonoon over to the +semicircle of cushions, having to chase a couple of them away from the +single seat at front and center, and induced them to sit down. + +The native sergeant in the little room said something under his breath; +the captain laughed. Edith Shaw gaped for an instant and said, +"_Muggawsh_!" Travis simply remarked that he'd be damned. + +"They do look kind of unusual, don't they?" Miles said. "I wouldn't +doubt that this is the biggest assemblage of shoonoon in history. They +aren't exactly a gregarious lot." + +"Maybe this is the beginning of a new era. First meeting of the Kwannon +Thaumaturgical Society." + +A couple more K.N.I. privates came in with serving-tables on +contragravity floats and began passing bowls of a frozen native-food +delicacy of which all Kwanns had become passionately fond since its +introduction by the Terrans. He let them finish, and then, after they +had been relieved of the empty bowls, he nodded to the K.N.I. sergeant, +who opened a door on the left. They all went through into the room they +had been seeing in the screen. There was a stir when the shoonoon saw +him, and he heard his name, in its usual native mispronunciation, +repeated back and forth. + +"You all know me," he said, after they were seated. "Have I ever been an +enemy to you or to the People?" + +"No," one of them said. "He speaks for us to the other Terrans. When we +are wronged, he tries to get the wrongs righted. In times of famine he +has spoken of our troubles, and gifts of food have come while the +Government argued about what to do." + +[Illustration] + +He wished he could see Edith Shaw's face. + +"There was a sickness in our village, and my magic could not cure it," +another said. "Mailsh Heelbare gave me oomphel to cure it, and told me +how to use it. He did this privately, so that I would not be made to +look small to the people of the village." + +And that had infuriated EETA; it was a question whether unofficial help +to the natives or support of the prestige of a shoonoo had angered them +more. + +"His father was a trader; he gave good oomphel, and did not cheat. +Mailsh Heelbare grew up among us; he took the Manhood Test with the boys +of the village," another oldster said. "He listened with respect to the +grandfather-stories. No, Mailsh Heelbare is not our enemy. He is our +friend." + +"And so I will prove myself now," he told them. "The Government is angry +with the People, but I will try to take their anger away, and in the +meantime I am permitted to come here and talk with you. Here is a chief +of soldiers, and one of the Government people, and your words will be +heard by the oomphel machine that remembers and repeats, for the +Governor and the Great Soldier Chief." + +They all brightened. To make a voice recording was a wonderful honor. +Then one of them said: + +"But what good will that do now? The Last Hot Time is here. Let us be +permitted to return to our villages, where our people need us." + +"It is of that that I wish to speak. But first of all, I must hear your +words, and know what is in your minds. Who is the eldest among you? Let +him come forth and sit in the front, where I may speak with him." + + +Then he relaxed while they argued in respectfully subdued voices. +Finally one decrepit oldster, wearing a cloak of yellow ribbons and +carrying a highly obscene and ineffably sacred wooden image, was brought +forward and installed on the front-and-center cushion. He'd come from +some village to the west that hadn't gotten the word of the swarming; +Gonzales' men had snagged him while he was making crop-fertility magic. + +Miles showed him the respect due his advanced age and obviously great +magical powers, displaying, as he did, an understanding of the regalia. + +"I have indeed lived long," the old shoonoo replied. "I saw the Hot Time +before; I was a child of so high." He measured about two and a half feet +off the floor; that would make him ninety-five or thereabouts. "I +remember it." + +"Speak to us, then. Tell us of the Gone Ones, and of the Sky Fire, and +of the Last Hot Time. Speak as though you alone knew these things, and +as though you were teaching me." + +Delighted, the oldster whooshed a couple of times to clear his outlets +and began: + +"In the long-ago time, there was only the Great Spirit. The Great Spirit +made the World, and he made the People. In that time, there were no more +People in the World than would be in one village, now. The Gone Ones +dwelt among them, and spoke to them as I speak to you. Then, as more +People were born, and died and went to join the Gone Ones, the Gone Ones +became many, and they went away and build a place for themselves, and +built the Sky Fire around it, and in the Place of the Gone Ones, at the +middle of the Sky Fire, it is cool. From their place in the Sky Fire, +the Gone Ones send wisdom to the people in dreams. + +"The Sky Fire passes across the sky, from east to west, as the +Always-Same does, but it is farther away than the Always-Same, because +sometimes the Always Same passes in front of it, but the Sky Fire never +passes in front of the Always-Same. None of the grandfather-stories, not +even the oldest, tell of a time when this happened. + +"Sometimes the Sky Fire is big and bright; that is when the Gone Ones +feast and dance. Sometimes it is smaller and dimmer; then the Gone Ones +rest and sleep. Sometimes it is close, and there is a Hot Time; +sometimes it goes far away, and then there is a Cool Time. + +"Now, the Last Hot Time has come. The Sky Fire will come closer and +closer, and it will pass the Always-Same, and then it will burn up the +World. Then will be a new World, and the Gone Ones will return, and the +People will be given new bodies. When this happens, the Sky Fire will go +out, and the Gone Ones will live in the World again with the People; the +Gone Ones will make great magic and teach wisdom as I teach to you, and +will no longer have to send dreams. In that time the crops will grow +without planting or tending or the work of women; in that time, the game +will come into the villages to be killed in the gathering-places. There +will be no more hunger and no more hard work, and no more of the People +will die or be slain. And that time is now here," he finished. "All the +People know this." + +"Tell me, Grandfather; how is this known? There have been many Hot Times +before. Why should this one be the Last Hot Time?" + +"The Terrans have come, and brought oomphel into the World," the old +shoonoo said. "It is a sign." + +"It was not prophesied beforetime. None of the People had prophesies of +the coming of the Terrans. I ask you, who were the father of children +and the grandfather of children's children when the Terrans came; was +there any such prophesy?" + + +The old shoonoo was silent, turning his pornographic ikon in his hands +and looked at it. + +"No," he admitted, at length. "Before the Terrans came, there were no +prophesies among the People of their coming. Afterward, of course, there +were many such prophesies, but there were none before." + +"That is strange. When a happening is a sign of something to come, it is +prophesied beforetime." He left that seed of doubt alone to grow, and +continued: "Now, Grandfather, speak to us about what the People believe +concerning the Terrans." + +"The Terrans came to the World when my eldest daughter bore her first +child," the old shoonoo said. "They came in great round ships, such as +come often now, but which had never before been seen. They said that +they came from another world like the World of People, but so far away +that even the Sky Fire could not be seen from it. They still say this, +and many of the People believe it, but it is not real. + +"At first, it was thought that the Terrans were great shoonoon who made +powerful magic, but this is not real either. The Terrans have no magic +and no wisdom of their own. All they have is the oomphel, and the +oomphel works magic for them and teaches them their wisdom. Even in the +schools which the Terrans have made for the People, it is the oomphel +which teaches." He went on to describe, not too incorrectly, the +reading-screens and viewscreens and audio-visual equipment. "Nor do the +Terrans make the oomphel, as they say. The oomphel makes more oomphel +for them." + +"Then where did the Terrans get the first oomphel?" + +"They stole it from the Gone Ones," the old shoonoo replied. "The Gone +Ones make it in their place in the middle of the Sky Fire, for +themselves and to give to the People when they return. The Terrans stole +it from them. For this reason, there is much hatred of the Terrans among +the People. The Terrans live in the Dark Place, under the World, where +the Sky Fire and the Always-Same go when they are not in the sky. It is +there that the Terrans get the oomphel from the Gone Ones, and now they +have come to the World, and they are using oomphel to hold back the +Sky-Fire and keep it beyond the Always-Same so that the Last Hot Time +will not come and the Gone Ones will not return. For this reason, too, +there is much hatred of the Terrans among the People." + +"Grandfather, if this were real there would be good reason for such +hatred, and I would be ashamed for what my people had done and were +doing. But it is not real." He had to rise and hold up his hands to +quell the indignant outcry "Have any of you known me to tell not-real +things and try to make the People act as though they were real? Then +trust me in this. I will show you real things, which you will all see, +and I will give you great secrets, which it is now time for you to have +and use for the good of the People. Even the greatest secret," he added. + +There was a pause of a few seconds. Then they burst out, in a hundred +and eighty-four--no, three hundred and sixty eight--voices: + +_"The Oomphel Secret, Mailsh Heelbare?"_ + +He nodded slowly. "Yes. The Oomphel Secret will be given." + +He leaned back and relaxed again while they were getting over the +excitement. Foxx Travis looked at him apprehensively. + +"Rushing things, aren't you? What are you going to tell them?" + +"Oh, a big pack of lies, I suppose," Edith Shaw said scornfully. + +Behind her and Travis, the native noncom interpreter was muttering +something in his own language that translated roughly as: "This better +be good!" + +The shoonoon had quieted, now, and were waiting breathlessly. + +"But if the Oomphel Secret is given, what will become of the shoonoon?" +he asked. "You, yourselves, say that we Terrans have no need for magic, +because the oomphel works magic for us. This is real. If the People get +the Oomphel Secret, how much need will they have for you shoonoon?" + +Evidently that hadn't occurred to them before. There was a brief flurry +of whispered--whooshed, rather--conversation, and then they were silent +again. The eldest shoonoo said: + +"We trust you, Mailsh Heelbare. You will do what is best for the People, +and you will not let us be thrown out like broken pots, either." + +"No, I will not," he promised. "The Oomphel Secret will be given to you +shoonoon." He thought for a moment of Foxx Travis' joking remark about +the Kwannon Thaumaturgical Society. "You have been jealous of one +another, each keeping his own secrets," he said. "This must be put away. +You will all receive the Oomphel Secret equally, for the good of all the +People. You must all swear brotherhood, one with another, and later if +any other shoonoo comes to you for the secret, you must swear +brotherhood with him and teach it to him. Do you agree to this?" + + +The eldest shoonoo rose to his feet, begged leave, and then led the +others to the rear of the room, where they went into a huddle. They +didn't stay huddled long; inside of ten minutes they came back and took +their seats. + +"We are agreed, Mailsh Heelbare," the spokesman said. + +Edith Shaw was impressed, more than by anything else she had seen. +"Well, that was a quick decision!" she whispered. + +"You have done well, Grandfathers. You will not be thrown out by the +People like broken pots; you will be greater among them than ever. I +will show you how this will be. + +"But first, I must speak around the Oomphel Secret." He groped briefly +for a comprehensible analogy, and thought of a native vegetable, layered +like an onion, with a hard kernel in the middle. "The Oomphel Secret is +like a fooshkoot. There are many lesser secrets around it, each of which +must be peeled off like the skins of a fooshkoot and eaten. Then you +will find the nut in the middle." + +"But the nut of the fooshkoot is bitter," somebody said. + +He nodded, slowly and solemnly. "The nut of the fooshkoot is bitter," he +agreed. + +They looked at one another, disquieted by his words. Before anybody +could comment, he was continuing: + +"Before this secret is given, there are things to be learned. You would +not understand it if I gave it to you now. You believe many not-real +things which must be chased out of your minds, otherwise they would +spoil your understanding." + +That was verbatim what they told adolescents before giving them the +Manhood Secret. Some of them huffed a little; most of them laughed. Then +one called out: "Speak on, Grandfather of Grandfathers," and they all +laughed. That was fine, it had been about time for teacher to crack his +little joke. Now he became serious again. + +"The first of these not-real things you must chase from your mind is +this which you believe about the home of the Terrans. It is not real +that they come from the Dark Place under the World. There is no Dark +Place under the World." + +Bedlam for a few seconds; that was a pretty stiff jolt. No Dark Place; +who ever heard of such a thing? The eldest shoonoo rose, cradling his +graven image in his arms, and the noise quieted. + +"Mailsh Heelbare, if there is no Dark Place where do the Sky Fire and +the Always-Same go when they are not in the sky?" + +"They never leave the sky; the World is round, and there is sky +everywhere around it." + +They knew that, or had at least heard it, since the Terrans had come. +They just couldn't believe it. It was against common sense. The oldest +shoonoo said as much, and more: + +"These young ones who have gone to the Terran schools have come to the +villages with such tales, but who listens to them? They show disrespect +for the chiefs and the elders, and even for the shoonoon. They mock at +the Grandfather-stories. They say men should do women's work and women +do no work at all. They break taboos, and cause trouble. They are +fools." + +"Am I a fool, Grandfather? Do I mock at the old stories, or show +disrespect to elders and shoonoon? Yet I, Mailsh Heelbare, tell you +this. The World is indeed round, and I will show you." + +The shoonoo looked contemptuously at the globe. "I have seen those +things," he said. "That is not the World; that is only a make-like." He +held up his phallic wood-carving. "I could say that this is a make-like +of the World, but that would not make it so." + +"I will show you for real. We will all go in a ship." He looked at his +watch. "The Sky Fire is about to set. We will follow it all around the +world to the west, and come back here from the east, and the Sky Fire +will still be setting when we return. If I show you that, will you +believe me?" + +"If you show us for real, and it is not a trick, we will have to believe +you." + + +When they emerged from the escalators, Alpha was just touching the +western horizon, and Beta was a little past zenith. The ship was moored +on contragravity beside the landing stage, her gangplank run out. The +shoonoon, who had gone up ahead, had all stopped short and were staring +at her; then they began gabbling among themselves, overcome by the +wonder of being about to board such a monster and ride on her. She was +the biggest ship any of them had ever seen. Maybe a few of them had been +on small freighters; many of them had never been off the ground. They +didn't look or act like cynical charlatans or implacable enemies of +progress and enlightenment. They were more like a lot of schoolboys +whose teacher is taking them on a surprise outing. + +"Bet this'll be the biggest day in their lives," Travis said. + +"Oh, sure. This'll be a grandfather-story ten generations from now." + +"I can't get over the way they made up their minds, down there," Edith +Shaw was saying. "Why, they just went and talked for a few minutes and +came back with a decision." + +They hadn't any organization, or any place to maintain on an +organizational pecking-order. Nobody was obliged to attack anybody +else's proposition in order to keep up his own status. He thought of the +Colonial Government taking ten years not to build those storm-shelters. + +Foxx Travis was commenting on the ship, now: + +"I never saw that ship before; didn't know there was anything like that +on the planet. Why, you could lift a whole regiment, with supplies and +equipment--" + +"She's been laid up for the last five years, since the heat and the +native troubles stopped the tourist business here. She's the old +_Hesperus_. Excursion craft. This sun-chasing trip we're going to make +used to be a must for tourists here." + +"I thought she was something like that, with all the glassed +observation deck forward. Who's the owner?" + +"Kwannon Air Transport, Ltd. I told them what I needed her for, and they +made her available and furnished officers and crew and provisions for +the trip. They were working to put her in commission while we were +fitting up the fourth and fifth floors, downstairs." + +"You just asked for that ship, and they just let you have it?" Edith +Shaw was incredulous and shocked. They wouldn't have done that for the +Government. + +"They want to see these native troubles stopped, too. Bad for business. +You know; selfish profit-move. That's another social force it's a good +idea to work with instead of against." + +The shoonoon were getting aboard, now, shepherded by the K.N.I. officer +and a couple of his men and some of the ship's crew. A couple of sepoys +were lugging the big globe that had been brought up from below after +them. Everybody assembled on the forward top observation deck, and Miles +called for attention and, finally, got it. He pointed out the three +viewscreens mounted below the bridge, amidships. One on the left, was +tuned to a pickup on the top of the Air Terminal tower, where the Terran +city, the military reservation and the spaceport met. It showed the view +to the west, with Alpha on the horizon. The one on the right, from the +same point, gave a view in the opposite direction, to the east. The +middle screen presented a magnified view of the navigational globe on +the bridge. + +Viewscreens were no novelty to the shoonoon. They were a very familiar +type of oomphel. He didn't even need to do more than tell them that the +little spot of light on the globe would show the position of the ship. +When he was sure that they understood that they could see what was +happening in Bluelake while they were away, he called the bridge and +ordered Up Ship, telling the officer on duty to hold her at five +thousand feet. + +The ship rose slowly, turning toward the setting M-giant. Somebody +called attention that the views in the screens weren't changing. +Somebody else said: + +"Of course not. What we see for real changes because the ship is moving. +What we see in the screens is what the oomphel on the big building sees, +and it does not move. That is for real as the oomphel sees it." + +"Nice going," Edith said. "Your class has just discovered relativity." +Travis was looking at the eastward viewscreen. He stepped over beside +Miles and lowered his voice. + +"Trouble over there to the east of town. Big swarm of combat +contragravity working on something on the ground. And something's on +fire, too." + +"I see it." + +"That's where those evacuees are camped. Why in blazes they had to bring +them here to Bluelake--" + +That had been EETA, too. When the solar tides had gotten high enough to +flood the coastal area, the natives who had been evacuated from the +district had been brought here because the Native Education people +wanted them exposed to urban influences. About half of the shoonoon who +had been rounded up locally had come in from the tide-inundated area. + +"Parked right in the middle of the Terran-type food production area," +Travis was continuing. + +That was worrying him. Maybe he wasn't used to planets where the +biochemistry wasn't Terra-type and a Terran would be poisoned or, at +best, starve to death, on the local food; maybe, as a soldier he knew +how fragile even the best logistics system can be. It was something to +worry about. Travis excused himself and went off in the direction of the +bridge. Going to call HQ and find out what was happening. + + +Excitement among the shoonoon; they had spotted the ship on which they +were riding in the westward screen. They watched it until it had +vanished from "sight of the seeing-oomphel," and by then were over the +upland forests from whence they had been brought to Bluelake. Now and +then one of them would identify his own village, and that would start +more excitement. + +Three infantry troop-carriers and a squadron of air cavalry were rushing +past the eastward pickup in the right hand screen; another fire had +started in the trouble area. + +The crowd that had gathered around the globe that had been brought +aboard began calling for Mailsh Heelbare to show them how they would go +around the world and what countries they would pass over. Edith +accompanied him and listened while he talked to them. She was bubbling +with happy excitement, now. It had just dawned on her that shoonoon were +fun. + +None of them had ever seen the mountains along the western side of the +continent except from a great distance. Now they were passing over them; +the ship had to gain altitude and even then make a detour around one +snow-capped peak. The whole hundred and eighty-four rushed to the +starboard side to watch it as they passed. The ocean, half an hour +later, started a rush forward. The score or so of them from the +Tidewater knew what an ocean was, but none of them had known that there +was another one to the west. Miles' view of the education program of the +EETA, never bright at best, became even dimmer. _The young men who have +gone to the Terran schools ... who listens to them? They are fools._ + +There were a few islands off the coast; the shoonoon identified them on +the screen globe, and on the one on deck. Some of them wanted to know +why there wasn't a spot of light on this globe, too. It didn't have the +oomphel inside to do that; that was a satisfactory explanation. Edith +started to explain about the orbital beacon-stations off-planet and the +radio beams, and then stopped. + +"I'm sorry; I'm not supposed to say anything to them," she apologized. + +"Oh, that's all right. I wouldn't go into all that, though. We don't +want to overload them." + +She asked permission, a little later, to explain why the triangle tip +of the arctic continent, which had begun to edge into sight on the +screen globe, couldn't be seen from the ship. When he told her to go +ahead, she got a platinum half-sol piece from her purse, held it on the +globe from the classroom and explained about the curvature and told them +they could see nothing farther away than the circle the coin covered. It +was beginning to look as though the psychological-warfare experiment +might show another, unexpected, success. + +[Illustration] + +There was nothing, after the islands passed, but a lot of empty water. +The shoonoon were getting hungry, but they refused to go below to eat. +They were afraid they might miss something. So their dinner was brought +up on deck for them. Miles and Travis and Edith went to the officers' +dining room back of the bridge. Edith, by now, was even more excited +than the shoonoon. + +"They're so anxious to learn!" She was having trouble adjusting to that; +that was dead against EETA doctrine. "But why wouldn't they listen to +the teachers we sent to the villages?" + +"You heard old Shatresh--the fellow with the pornographic sculpture and +the yellow robe. These young twerps act like fools, and sensible people +don't pay any attention to fools. What's more, they've been sent out +indoctrinated with the idea that shoonoon are a lot of lying old fakes, +and the shoonoon resent that. You know, they're not lying old fakes. +Within their limitations, they are honest and ethical professional +people." + +"Oh, come, now! I know, I think they're sort of wonderful, but let's +don't give them too much credit." + +"I'm not. You're doing that." + +"_Huh?_" She looked at him in amazement. "Me?" + + +"Yes, you. You know better than to believe in magic, so you expect them +to know better, too. Well, they don't. You know that under the +macroscopic world-of-the senses there exists a complex of biological, +chemical and physical phenomena down to the subnucleonic level. They +realize that there must be something beyond what they can see and +handle, but they think it's magic. Well, as a race, so did we until only +a few centuries pre-atomic. These people are still lower Neolithic, a +hunting people who have just learned agriculture. Where we were twenty +thousand years ago. + +"You think any glib-talking Kwann can hang a lot of rags, bones and old +iron onto himself, go through some impromptu mummery, and set up as +shoonoo? Well, he can't. The shoonoon are a hereditary caste. A shoonoo +father will begin teaching his son as soon as he can walk and talk, and +he keeps on teaching him till he's the age-equivalent of a graduate M.D. +or a science Ph. D." + +"Well, what all is there to learn--?" + +"The theoretical basis and practical applications of sympathetic magic. +Action-at-a-distance by one object upon another. Homeopathic magic: the +principle that things which resemble one another will interact. For +instance, there's an animal the natives call a shynph. It has an +excrescence of horn on its brow like an arrowhead, and it arches its +back like a bow when it jumps. Therefore, a shynph is equal to a bow and +arrow, and for that reason the Kwanns made their bowstrings out of +shynph-gut. Now they use tensilon because it won't break as easily or +get wet and stretch. So they have to turn the tensilon into shynph-gut. +They used to do that by drawing a picture of a shynph on the spool, and +then the traders began labeling the spools with pictures of shynph. I +think my father was one of the first to do that. + +"Then, there's contagious magic. Anything that's been part of anything +else or come in contact with it will interact permanently with it. I +wish I had a sol for every time I've seen a Kwann pull the wad out of a +shot-shell, pick up a pinch of dirt from the footprint of some animal +he's tracking, put it in among the buckshot, and then crimp the wad in +again. + +"Everything a Kwann does has some sort of magical implications. It's +the shoonoo's business to know all this; to be able to tell just what +magical influences have to be produced, and what influences must be +avoided. And there are circumstances in which magic simply will not +work, even in theory. The reason is that there is some powerful +counter-influence at work. He has to know when he can't use magic, and +he has to be able to explain why. And when he's theoretically able to do +something by magic, he has to have a plausible explanation why it won't +produce results--just as any highly civilized and ethical Terran M.D. +has to be able to explain his failures to the satisfaction of his late +patient's relatives. Only a shoonoo doesn't get sued for malpractice; he +gets a spear stuck in him. Under those circumstances, a caste of +hereditary magicians is literally bred for quick thinking. These old +gaffers we have aboard are the intellectual top crust among the natives. +Any of them can think rings around your Government school products. As +for preying on the ignorance and credulity of the other natives, they're +only infinitesimally less ignorant and credulous themselves. But they +want to learn--from anybody who can gain their respect by respecting +them." + +Edith Shaw didn't say anything in reply. She was thoughtful during the +rest of the meal, and when they were back on the observation deck he +noticed that she seemed to be looking at the shoonoon with new eyes. + +In the screen-views of Bluelake, Beta had already set, and the sky was +fading; stars had begun to twinkle. There were more fires--one, close to +the city in the east, a regular conflagration--and fighting had broken +out in the native city itself. He was wishing now, that he hadn't +thought it necessary to use those screens. The shoonoon were noticing +what was going on in them, and talking among themselves. Travis, after +one look at the situation, hurried back to the bridge to make a +screen-call. After a while, he returned, almost crackling with +suppressed excitement. + +"Well, it's finally happened! Maith's forced Kovac to declare martial +rule!" he said in an exultant undertone. + +"Forced him?" Edith was puzzled. "The Army can't force the Civil +Government--" + +"He threatened to do it himself. Intervene and suspend civil rule." + +"But I thought only the Navy could do that." + +"Any planetary commander of Armed Forces can, in a state of extreme +emergency. I think you'll both agree that this emergency is about as +extreme as they come. Kovac knew that Maith was unwilling to do it--he'd +have to stand court-martial to justify his action--but he also knew that +a governor general who has his Colony taken away from him by the Armed +Forces never gets it back; he's finished. So it was just a case of the +weaker man in the weaker position yielding." + +"Where does this put us?" + +"We are a civilian scientific project. You are under orders of General +Maith. I am under your orders. I don't know about Edith." + +"Can I draft her, or do I have to get you to get General Maith to do +it?" + +"Listen, don't do that," Edith protested. "I still have to work for +Government House, and this martial rule won't last forever. They'll all +be prejudiced against me--" + +"You can shove your Government job on the air lock," Miles told her. +"You'll have a better one with Planetwide News, at half again as much +pay. And after the shakeup at Government House, about a year from now, +you may be going back as director of EETA. When they find out on Terra +just how badly this Government has been mismanaging things there'll be a +lot of vacancies." + +The shoonoon had been watching the fighting in the viewscreens. Then +somebody noticed that the spot of light on the navigational globe was +approaching a coastline, and they all rushed forward for a look. + + +Travis and Edith slept for a while; when they returned to relieve him, +Alpha was rising to the east of Bluelake, and the fighting in the city +was still going on. The shoonoon were still wakeful and interested; +Kwanns could go without sleep for much longer periods than Terrans. The +lack of any fixed cycle of daylight and darkness on their planet had +left them unconditioned to any regular sleeping-and-waking rhythm. + +"I just called in," Travis said. "Things aren't good, at all. Most of +the natives in the evacuee cantonments have gotten into the native city, +now, and they've gotten hold of a lot of firearms somehow. And they're +getting nasty in the west, beyond where Gonzales is occupying, and in +the northeast, and we only have about half enough troops to cope with +everything. The general wants to know how you're making out with the +shoonoon." + +"I'll call him before I get in the sack." + +He went up on the bridge and made the call. General Maith looked as +sleepy as he felt; they both yawned as they greeted each other. There +wasn't much he could tell the general, and it sounded like the glib +reassurances one gets from a hospital about a friend's condition. + +"We'll check in with you as soon as we get back and get our shoonoon put +away. We understand what's motivating these frenzies, now, and in about +twenty-five to thirty hours we'll be able to start doing something about +it." + +The general, in the screen, grimaced. + +"That's a long time, Mr. Gilbert. Longer than we can afford to take, I'm +afraid. You're not cruising at full speed now, are you?" + +"Oh, no, general. We're just trying to keep Alpha level on the horizon." +He thought for a moment. "We don't need to keep down to that. It may +make an even bigger impression if we speed up." + +He went back to the observation deck, picked up the PA-phone, and called +for attention. + +"You have seen, now, that we can travel around the world, so fast that +we keep up with the Sky Fire and it is not seen to set. Now we will +travel even faster, and I will show you a new wonder. I will show you +the Sky Fire rising in the west; it and the Always-Same will seem to go +backward in the sky. This will not be for real; it will only be seen so +because we will be traveling faster. Watch, now, and see." He called the +bridge for full speed, and then told them to look at the Sky-Fire and +then see in the screens where it stood over Bluelake. + +That was even better; now they were racing with the Sky-Fire and +catching up to it. After half an hour he left them still excited and +whooping gleefully over the steady gain. Five hours later, when he came +back after a nap and a hasty breakfast, they were still whooping. Edith +Shaw was excited, too; the shoonoon were trying to estimate how soon +they would be back to Bluelake by comparing the position of the Sky Fire +with its position in the screen. + + +General Maith received them in his private office at Army HQ; Foxx +Travis mixed drinks for the four of them while the general checked the +microphones to make sure they had privacy. + +"I blame myself for not having forced martial rule on them hundreds of +hours ago," he said. "I have three brigades; the one General Gonzales +had here originally, and the two I brought with me when I took over +here. We have to keep at least half a brigade in the south, to keep the +tribes there from starting any more forest fires. I can't hold Bluelake +with anything less than half a brigade. Gonzales has his hands full in +his area. He had a nasty business while you were off on that world +cruise--natives in one village caught the men stationed there off guard +and wiped them out, and then started another frenzy. It spread to two +other villages before he got it stopped. And we need the Third Brigade +in the northeast; there are three quarters of a million natives up +there, inhabiting close to a million square miles. And if anything +really breaks loose here, and what's been going on in the last few days +is nothing even approaching what a real outbreak could be like, we'll +have to pull in troops from everywhere. We must save the Terran-type +crops and the carniculture plants. If we don't, we all starve." + +Miles nodded. There wasn't anything he could think of saying to that. + +"How soon can you begin to show results with those shoonoon, Mr. +Gilbert?" the general asked. "You said from twenty-five to thirty hours. +Can you cut that any? In twenty-five hours, all hell could be loose all +over the continent." + +Miles shook his head. "So far, I haven't accomplished anything +positive," he said. "All I did with this trip around the world was +convince them that I was telling the truth when I told them there was no +Dark Place under the World, where Alpha and Beta go at night." He +hastened, as the general began swearing, to add: "I know, that doesn't +sound like much. But it was necessary. I have to convince them that +there will be no Last Hot Time, and then--" + + +The shoonoon, on their drum-shaped cushions, stared at him in silence, +aghast. All the happiness over the wonderful trip in the ship, when they +had chased the Sky Fire around the World and caught it over Bluelake, +and even their pleasure in the frozen delicacies they had just eaten, +was gone. + +_"No--Last--Hot--Time?"_ + +"Mailsh Heelbare, this is not real! It cannot be!" + +"The Gone Ones--" + +"The Always-Cool Time, when there will be no more hunger or hard work or +death; it cannot be real that this will never come!" + +He rose, holding up his hands; his action stopped the clamor. + +"Why should the Gone Ones want to return to this poor world that they +have gladly left?" he asked. "Have they not a better place in the middle +of the Sky Fire, where it is always cool? And why should you want them +to come back to this world? Will not each one of you pass, sooner or +later, to the middle of the Sky Fire; will you not there be given new +bodies and join the Gone Ones? There is the Always-Cool; there the crops +grow without planting and without the work of women; there the game come +into the villages to be killed in the gathering-places, without hunting. +There you will talk with the other Gone Ones, your fathers and your +fathers' fathers, as I talk with you. Why do you think this must come to +the World of People? Can you not wait to join the Gone Ones in the Sky +Fire?" + +Then he sat down and folded his arms. They were looking at him in +amazement; evidently they all saw the logic, but none of them had ever +thought of it before. Now they would have to turn it over in their minds +and accustom themselves to the new viewpoint. They began whooshing among +themselves. At length, old Shatresh, who had seen the Hot Time before, +spoke: + +"Mailsh Heelbare, we trust you," he said. "You have told us of wonders, +and you have shown us that they were real. But do you know this for +real?" + +"Do you tell me that you do not?" he demanded in surprise. "You have had +fathers, and fathers' fathers. They have gone to join the Gone Ones. Why +should you not, also? And why should the Gone Ones come back and destroy +the World of People? Then your children will have no more children, and +your children's children will never be. It is in the World of People +that the People are born; it is in the World that they grow and gain +wisdom to fit themselves to live in the Place of the Gone Ones when they +are through with the bodies they use in the World. You should be happy +that there will be no Last Hot Time, and that the line of your +begettings will go on and not be cut short." + +There were murmurs of agreement with this. Most of them were beginning +to be relieved that there wouldn't be a Last Hot Time, after all. Then +one of the class asked: + +"Do the Terrans also go to the Place of the Gone Ones, or have they a +place of their own?" + +He was silent for a long time, looking down at the floor. Then he raised +his head. + +"I had hoped that I would not have to speak of this," he said. "But, +since you have asked, it is right that I should tell you." He hesitated +again, until the Kwanns in front of him had begun to fidget. Then he +asked old Shatresh: "Speak of the beliefs of the People about how the +World was made." + +"The great Spirit made the world." He held up his carven obscenity. "He +made the World out of himself. This is a make-like to show it." + +"The Great Spirit made many worlds. The stars which you see in dark-time +are all worlds, each with many smaller worlds around it. The Great +Spirit made them all at one time, and made people on many of them. The +Great Spirit made the World of People, and made the Always-Same and the +Sky Fire, and inside the Sky Fire he made the Place of the Gone Ones. +And when he made the Place of the Gone Ones, he put an Oomphel-Mother +inside it, to bring forth oomphel." + + +This created a brief sensation. An Oomphel-Mother was something they had +never thought of before, but now they were wondering why they hadn't. Of +course there'd be an Oomphel-Mother; how else would there be oomphel? + +"The World of the Terrans is far away from the World of People, as we +have always told you. When the Great Spirit made it He gave it only an +Always-Same, and no Sky Fire. Since there was no Sky Fire, there was no +place to put a Place of the Gone Ones, so the Great Spirit made the +Terrans so that they would not die, but live forever in their own +bodies. The Oomphel-Mother for the World of the Terrans the Great Spirit +hid in a cave under a great mountain. + +"The Terrans whom the Great Spirit made lived for a long time, and then, +one day, a man and a woman found a crack in a rock, and went inside, and +they found the cave of the Oomphel-Mother, and the Oomphel-Mother in it. +So they called all the other Terrans, and they brought the +Oomphel-Mother out, and the Oomphel-Mother began to bring forth Oomphel. +The Oomphel-Mother brought forth metal, and cloth, and glass, and +plastic; knives, and axes and guns and clothing--" He went on, +cataloguing the products of human technology, the shoonoon staring more +and more wide-eyed at him. "And oomphel to make oomphel, and oomphel to +teach wisdom," he finished. "They became very wise and very rich. + +"Then the Great Spirit saw what the Terrans had done, and became angry, +for it was not meant for the Terrans to do this, and the Great Spirit +cursed the Terrans with a curse of death. It was not death as you know +it. Because the Terrans had sinned by laying hands on the +Oomphel-Mother, not only their bodies must die, but their spirits also. +A Terran has a short life in the body, after that no life." + +"This, then, is the Oomphel Secret. The last skin of the fooshkoot has +been peeled away; behold the bitter nut, upon which we Terrans have +chewed for more time than anybody can count. Happy people! When you die +or are slain, you go to the Place of the Gone Ones, to join your fathers +and your fathers' fathers and to await your children and children's +children. When we die or are slain, that is the end of us." + +[Illustration] + +"But you have brought your oomphel into this world; have you not brought +the curse with it?" somebody asked, frightened. + +"No. The People did not sin against the Great Spirit; they have not laid +hands on an Oomphel-Mother as we did. The oomphel we bring you will do +no harm; do you think we would be so wicked as to bring the curse upon +you? It will be good for you to learn about oomphel here; in your Place +of the Gone Ones there is much oomphel." + +"Why did your people come to this world, Mailsh Heelbare?" old Shatresh +asked. "Was it to try to hide from the curse?" + +"There is no hiding from the curse of the Great Spirit, but we Terrans +are not a people who submit without strife to any fate. From the time of +the Curse of Death on, we have been trying to make spirits for +ourselves." + +"But how can you do that?" + +"We do not know. The oomphel will not teach us that, though it teaches +everything else. We have only learned many ways in which it cannot be +done. It cannot be done with oomphel, or with anything that is in our +own world. But the Oomphel-Mother made us ships to go to other worlds, +and we have gone to many of them, this one among them, seeking things +from which we try to make spirits. We are trying to make spirits for +ourselves from the crystals that grow in the klooba plants; we may fail +with them, too. But I say this; I may die, and all the other Terrans now +living may die, and be as though they had never been, but someday we +will not fail. Someday our children, or our children's children, will +make spirits for themselves and live forever, as you do." + +[Illustration] + +"Why were we not told this before, Mailsh Heelbare?" + +"We were ashamed to have you know it. We are ashamed to be people +without spirits." + +"Can we help you and your people? Maybe our magic might help." + +"It well might. It would be worth trying. But first, you must help +yourselves. You and your people are sinning against the Great Spirit as +grievously as did the Terrans of old. Be warned in time, lest you answer +it as grievously." + +"What do you mean, Mailsh Heelbare?" Old Shatresh was frightened. + +"You are making magic to bring the Sky Fire to the World. Do you know +what will happen? The World of People will pass whole into the place of +the Gone Ones, and both will be destroyed. The World of People is a +world of death; everything that lives on it must die. The Place of the +Gone Ones is a world of life; everything in it lives forever. The two +will strive against each other, and will destroy one another, and there +will be nothing in the Sky Fire or the World but fire. This is wisdom +which our oomphel teaches us. We know this secret, and with it we make +weapons of great destruction." He looked over the seated shoonoon, +picking out those who wore the flame-colored cloaks of the fire-dance. +"You--and you--and you," he said. "You have been making this dreadful +magic, and leading your people in it. And which among the rest of you +have not been guilty?" + +"We did not know," one of them said. "Mailsh Heelbare, have we yet time +to keep this from happening?" + +"Yes. There is only a little time, but there is time. You have until +the Always-Same passes across the face of the Sky-Fire." That would be +seven hundred and fifty hours. "If this happens, all is safe. If the Sky +Fire blots Out the Always Same, we are all lost together. You must go +among your people and tell them what madness they are doing, and command +them to stop. You must command them to lay down their arms and cease +fighting. And you must tell them of the awful curse that was put upon +the Terrans in the long-ago time, for a lesser sin than they are now +committing." + +"If we say that Mailsh Heelbare told us this, the people may not believe +us. He is not known to all, and some would take no Terran's word, not +even his." + +"Would anybody tell a secret of this sort, about his own people, if it +were not real?" + +"We had better say nothing about Mailsh Heelbare. We will say that the +Gone Ones told us in dreams." + +"Let us say that the Great Spirit sent a dream of warning to each of +us," another shoonoo said. "There has been too much talk about dreams +from the Gone Ones already." + +"But the Great Spirit has never sent a dream--" + +"Nothing like this has ever happened before, either." + +He rose, and they were silent. "Go to your living-place, now," he told +them. "Talk of how best you may warn your people." He pointed to the +clock. "You have an oomphel like that in your living-place; when the +shorter spear has moved three places, I will speak with you again, and +then you will be sent in air cars to your people to speak to them." + +They went up the escalator and down the hall to Miles' office on the +third floor without talking. Foxx Travis was singing softly, almost +inaudibly: + + _"You will eeeeat ... in the sweeeet ... bye-and-bye, + You'll get oooom ... phel in the sky ... when you die!"_ + +Inside, Edith Shaw slumped dispiritedly in a chair. Foxx Travis went to +the coffee-maker and started it. Miles snapped on the communication +screen and punched the combination of General Maith's headquarters. As +soon as the uniformed girl who appeared in it saw him, her hands moved +quickly; the screen flickered, and the general appeared in it. + +"We have it made, general. They're sold; we're ready to start them out +in three hours." + +Maith's thin, weary face suddenly lighted. "You mean they are going to +co-operate?" + +He shook his head. "They think they're saving the world; they think +we're co-operating with them." + +The general laughed. "That's even better! How do you want them sent +out?" + +"The ones in the Bluelake area first. Better have some picked K.N.I. in +native costume, with pistols, to go with them. They'll need protection, +till they're able to get a hearing for themselves. After they're all +out, the ones from Gonzales' area can be started." He thought for a +moment. "I'll want four or five of them left here to help me when you +start bringing more shoonoon in from other areas. How soon do you think +you'll have another class for me?" + +"Two or three days, if everything goes all right. We have the villages +and plantations in the south under pretty tight control now; we can +start gathering them up right away. As soon as we get things stabilized +here, we can send reinforcements to the north. We'll have transport for +you in three hours." + +The general blanked out. He turned from the screen. Travis was laughing +happily. + +"Miles, did anybody ever tell you you were a genius?" he asked. "That +last jolt you gave them was perfect. Why didn't you tell us about it in +advance?" + +"I didn't know about it in advance; I didn't think of it till I'd +started talking to them. No cream or sugar for me." + +"Cream," Edith said, lifelessly. "Why did you do it? Why didn't you just +tell them the truth?" + +Travis asked her to define the term. She started to say something bitter +about Jesting Pilate. Miles interrupted. + +"In spite of Lord Beacon, Pilate wasn't jesting," he said. "And he +didn't stay for an answer because he knew he'd die of old age waiting +for one. What kind of truth should I have told them?" + +"Why, what you started to tell them. That Beta moves in a fixed orbit +and can't get any closer to Alpha--" + +"There's been some work done on the question since Pilate's time," +Travis said. "My semantics prof at Command College had the start of an +answer. He defined truth as a statement having a practical +correspondence with reality on the physical levels of structure and +observation and the verbal order of abstraction under consideration." + +"He defined truth as a statement. A statement exists only in the mind of +the person making it, and the mind of the person to whom it is made. If +the person to whom it is made can't understand or accept it, it isn't +the truth." + +"They understood when you showed them that the planet is round, and they +understood that tri-dimensional model of the system. Why didn't you let +it go at that?" + +"They accepted it intellectually. But when I told them that there wasn't +any chance of Kwannon getting any closer to Alpha, they rebelled +emotionally. It doesn't matter how conclusively you prove anything, if +the person to whom you prove it can't accept your proof emotionally, +it's still false. Not-real." + +"They had all their emotional capital invested in this Always-Cool +Time," Travis told her. "They couldn't let Miles wipe that out for them. +So he shifted it from this world to the next, and convinced them that +they were getting a better deal that way. You saw how quickly they +picked it up. And he didn't have the sin of telling children there is no +Easter Bunny on his conscience, either." + + +"But why did you tell them that story about the Oomphel Mother?" she +insisted. "Now they'll go out and tell all the other natives, and +they'll believe it." + +"Would they have believed it if I'd told them about Terran scientific +technology? Your people have been doing that for close to half a +century. You see what impression it's made." + +"But you told them--You told them that Terrans have no souls!" + +"Can you prove that was a lie?" Travis asked. "Let's see yours. +Draw--_soul_! Inspection--_soul_!" + +Naturally. Foxx Travis would expect a soul to be carried in a holster. + +"But they'll look down on us, now. They'll say we're just like animals," +Edith almost wailed. + +"Now it comes out," Travis said. "We won't be the lordly Terrans, any +more, helping the poor benighted Kwanns out of the goodness of our +hearts, scattering largess, bearing the Terran's Burden--new model, a +give-away instead of a gun. Now _they'll_ pity _us_; they'll think +_we're_ inferior beings." + +"I don't think the natives are inferior beings!" She was almost in +tears. + +"If you don't, why did you come all the way to Kwannon to try to make +them more like Terrans?" + +"Knock it off, Foxx; stop heckling her." Travis looked faintly +surprised. Maybe he hadn't realized, before, that a boss newsman learns +to talk like a commanding officer. "You remember what Ramon Gonzales was +saying, out at Sanders', about the inferior's hatred for the superior as +superior? It's no wonder these Kwanns resent us. They have a right to; +we've done them all an unforgivable injury. We've let them see us doing +things they can't do. Of course they resent us. But now I've given them +something to feel superior about. When they die, they'll go to the Place +of the Gone Ones, and have oomphel in the sky, and they will live +forever in new bodies, but when we die, we just die, period. So they'll +pity us and politely try to hide their condescension toward us. + +"And because they feel superior to us, they'll want to help us. They'll +work hard on the plantations, so that we can have plenty of biocrystals, +and their shoonoon will work magic for us, to help us poor benighted +Terrans to grow souls for ourselves, so that we can almost be like them. +Of course, they'll have a chance to exploit us, and get oomphel from us, +too, but the important thing will be to help the poor Terrans. Maybe +they'll even organize a Spiritual and Magical Assistance Agency." + + +THE END + + ++---------------------------------------------------------------+ +| | +| Errata | +| | +| The following typographical errors, which occurred once each, | +| were corrected in the text. | +| | +| | +| radiaion radiation | +| plan planet | +| Biocrysal Biocrystal | +| Trans-Sapce Trans-Space | +| institigation instigation | +| then than | +| phalic phallic | +| no not | +| tide-innundated tide-inundated | +| ox-planet off-planet | +| infinitesmally infinitesimally | +| makelike make-like | +| | ++---------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Oomphel in the Sky, by Henry Beam Piper + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OOMPHEL IN THE SKY *** + +***** This file should be named 20649.txt or 20649.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/4/20649/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, LN Yaddanapudi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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