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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30322 ***
+
+                         Transcriber's Note:
+
+  This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction December 1961.
+  Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright
+  on this publication was renewed.
+
+
+
+                         the helpful hand of
+
+                                 god
+
+
+     ... Can be very helpful indeed. But of course, it's long
+     been known that God helps those who wisely help
+     themselves....
+
+
+                            BY TOM GODWIN
+
+                       ILLUSTRATED BY BARBERIS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+(From "Vogarian Revised Encyclopedia":
+
+_SAINTS: Golden Saints, properly, Yellow Saints, a term of contempt
+applied by the Vogarian State Press to members of the Church Of The
+Golden Rule because of their opposition to the war then being planned
+against Alkoria. See CHURCHES._
+
+_CHURCH, GOLDEN RULE, OF THE: A group of reactionary fanatics who
+resisted State control and advocated social chaos through "Individual
+Freedom." They were liquidated in the Unity Purge but for two-thousand
+of the more able-bodied, who were sentenced to the moon mines of Belen
+Nine. The prison ship never arrived there and it is assumed that the
+condemned Saints somehow overpowered the guards and escaped to some
+remote section of the galaxy.)_
+
+
+Kane had observed Commander Y'Nor's bird-of-prey profile with detached
+interest as Y'Nor jerked his head around to glare again at the
+chronometer on the farther wall of the cruiser's command room.
+
+"What's keeping Dalon?" Y'Nor demanded, transferring his glare to
+Kane. "Did you assure him that I have all day to waste?"
+
+"He should be here any minute, sir," Kane answered.
+
+"I didn't find the Saints, after others had failed for sixty years, to
+then sit and wait. The situation on Vogar was already very critical
+when we left." Y'Nor scowled at the chronometer again. "Every hour we
+waste waiting here will delay our return to Vogar by an hour--I
+presume you realize that?
+
+"It does sound like a logical theory," Kane agreed.
+
+Y'Nor's face darkened dangerously. "You will--"
+
+Quick, hard-heeled footsteps sounded in the corridor outside. The
+guard officer, Dalon, stepped through the doorway and saluted; his
+eyes like ice under his pale brows and his uniform seeming to bristle
+with weapons.
+
+"The native is here, sir," he said to Y'Nor.
+
+He turned, and made a commanding gesture. The leader of the Saints
+appeared; the man whose resistance Y'Nor would have to break.
+
+A frail, white-bearded old man, scuffed uncertainly into the room in
+straw sandals, his faded blue eyes peering nearsightedly toward Y'Nor.
+
+"Go to the commander's desk," Dalon ordered in his metallic tones.
+
+The old man obeyed and stopped before Y'Nor's desk, his hands clasped
+together as though to hide their trembling.
+
+"You are Brenn," Y'Nor said, "and you hold, I believe, the impressive
+titles of Chief Executive of the Council Of Provinces and Supreme
+Elder of the Churches Of The Golden Rule?"
+
+"Yes, sir." There was a faint quaver in old Brenn's voice. "I welcome
+you to our world, sir, and offer you our friendship."
+
+"I understand you can produce Elusium X fuel?"
+
+"Yes, sir. Our Dr. Larue told me the process is within our ability.
+We--" He hesitated. "We know you haven't enough fuel to return to
+Vogar."
+
+Y'Nor stiffened in his chair. "What makes you think that?"
+
+"It requires a great deal of fuel to get through the Whirlpool star
+cluster--and even sixty years ago, the Elusium ores of Vogar were
+almost exhausted."
+
+Y'Nor smiled thinly. "That reminds me--you would be one of the Saints
+who murdered their guards and stole a ship to get here."
+
+"We killed no guards, sir. In fact, all of them eventually joined our
+church."
+
+"Where is the ship?"
+
+"We had to cut it up for our start in mechanization."
+
+"I presume you know you will pay for it?"
+
+"It was taking us to our deaths in the radium mines--but we will pay
+whatever you ask."
+
+"The first installment will be one thousand units of fuel, to be
+produced with the greatest speed possible."
+
+"Yes, sir. But in return"--the old man stood a little straighter and
+an underlying resolve was suddenly revealed--"you must recognize us as
+a free race."
+
+"Free? A colony founded by escaped criminals?"
+
+"That is not true! We committed no crime, harmed no living thing...."
+
+The hard, cold words of Y'Nor cut off his protest:
+
+"This world is now a Vogarian possession. Every man, woman, and child
+upon it is a prisoner of the Vogarian State. There will be no
+resistance. This cruiser's disintegrators can destroy a town within
+seconds, your race within hours. Do you understand what I mean?"
+
+The visible portion of old Brenn's face turned pale. He spoke at last
+in the bitter tones of frightened, stubborn determination:
+
+"I offered you our friendship; I hoped you would accept, for we are a
+peaceful race. I should have known that you came only to persecute and
+enslave us. But the hand of God will reach down to help us and--"
+
+Y'Nor laughed, a raucous sound like the harsh caw of the Vogarian
+vulture, and held up a hairy fist.
+
+"This, old man, is the hand for you to center your prayers around. I
+want full-scale fuel production commenced within twenty-four hours. If
+this is done, and if you continue to unquestioningly obey all my
+commands, I will for that long defer your punishment as an escaped
+criminal. If this is not done, I will destroy a town exactly
+twenty-five hours from now--and as many more as may be necessary. And
+you will be publicly executed as a condemned criminal and an enemy of
+the Vogarian State."
+
+Y'Nor turned to Dalon. "Take him away."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Scared sheep," Y'Nor said when Brenn was gone. "Tomorrow he'll say
+that he prayed and his god told him what to do--which will be to save
+his neck by doing as I command."
+
+"I don't know--" Kane said doubtfully. "I think you're wrong about his
+conscience folding so easily."
+
+"_You_ think?" Y'Nor asked. "Perhaps I should remind you that the
+ability to think is usually characteristic of commanders rather than
+sub-ensigns. You will not be asked to try to think beyond the small
+extent required to comprehend simple commands."
+
+Kane sighed with weary resignation. An unexpected encounter with an
+Alkorian battleship had sent the Vogarian cruiser fleeing through the
+unexplored Whirlpool star cluster--Y'Nor and Kane the two surviving
+commissioned officers--with results of negative value to those most
+affected: the world of the Saint had been accidentally discovered and
+he, Kane, had risen from sub-ensign to the shakily temporary position
+of second-in-command.
+
+Y'Nor spoke again:
+
+"Since Vogarian commanders do not go out and mingle with the natives
+of a subject world, you will act as my representative. I'll let Brenn
+sweat until tomorrow, then you will go see him. In that, and in all
+subsequent contacts with the natives, you will keep in mind the fact
+that I shall hold you personally responsible for any failure of my
+program."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next afternoon, two hours before the deadline, Kane went out into
+the sweet spring air of the world the Saints had named Sanctuary.
+
+It was a virgin world, rich in the resources needed by Vogar, with
+twenty thousand Saints as the primary labor supply. It was also, he
+thought, a green and beautiful world; almost a familiar world. The
+cruiser stood at the upper edge of the town and in the late afternoon
+sun the little white and brown houses were touched with gold, half
+hidden in the deep azure shadows of the tall trees and flowering vines
+that bordered the gently curving streets.
+
+Restlessness stirred within him as he looked at them. It was like
+going back in time to the Lost Islands, that isolated little region of
+Vogar that had eluded collectivization until the year he was sixteen.
+It had been at the same time of year, in the spring, that the State
+Unity forces had landed. The Lost Island villages had been drowsing in
+the sun that afternoon, as this town was drowsing now--
+
+He forced the memories from his mind, and the futile restlessness they
+brought, and went on past a golden-spired church to a small cottage
+that was almost hidden in a garden of flowers and giant silver ferns.
+
+Brenn met him at the door, his manner very courteous, his eyes
+dark-shadowed with weariness as though he had not slept for many
+hours, and invited him inside.
+
+When they were seated in the simply-furnished room, Brenn said, "You
+came for my decision, sir?"
+
+"The commander sent me for it."
+
+Brenn folded his thin hands, which seemed to have the trembling
+sometimes characteristic of the aged.
+
+"Yesterday evening when I came from the ship, I prayed for guidance
+and I saw that I could only abide by the Golden Rule: _Do unto others
+as you would have them do unto you._"
+
+"Which means," Kane asked, "that you will do what?"
+
+"Should we of the Church be stranded upon an alien world, our fuel
+supply almost gone, we would ask for help. By our own Golden Rule we
+can do no less than give it."
+
+"Eighteen hours ago I issued the order for full-scale, all-out fuel
+production. I've been up all night and day checking the operation."
+
+Kane stared, surprised that Y'Nor should have so correctly predicted
+Brenn's reaction. He tried to see some change in the old man, some
+evidence of the personal fear that must have broken him so quickly,
+but there was only weariness, and a gentleness.
+
+"So much fuel--" Brenn said. "Is Vogar still at war with Alkoria?"
+
+Kane nodded.
+
+"Once I saw some Alkorian prisoners of war on Vogar," Brenn said.
+"They are a peaceful, doglike race. They never wanted to go to war
+with Vogar."
+
+Well--they still didn't want war but on Alkoria were Elusium ores and
+other resources that the Vogarian State had to have before it could
+carry out its long-frustrated ambition of galactic conquest.
+
+"I'll go, now," Kane said, getting out of his chair, "and see what
+you're having done. The commander doesn't take anybody's word for
+anything."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Brenn called a turbo-car and driver to take him to the multi-purpose
+factory, which was located a short distance beyond the other side of
+town. The driver stopped before the factory's main office, where a
+plump, bald man was waiting, his scalp and glasses gleaming in the
+sunshine.
+
+"I'm Dr Larue, sir," he greeted Kane. He had a face that under normal
+circumstance would have been genial. "Father Brenn said you were
+coming. I'm at your service, to show you what we're doing."
+
+They went inside the factory, where the rush of activity was like a
+beehive. Machines and installations not needed for fuel production
+were being torn out as quickly as possible, others taking their place.
+The workers--he craned his neck to verify his astonished
+first-impression.
+
+All of them were women.
+
+"Father Brenn's suggestion," Larue said. "These girls are as competent
+as men for this kind of work and their use here permits the release of
+men to the outer provinces to procure the raw materials. As you know,
+our population is small and widely scattered--"
+
+A crash sounded as a huge object nearby toppled and fell. Kane took an
+instinctive backward step, and bumped into something soft.
+
+"Oh ... excuse me, sir!"
+
+He turned, and had a confused vision of an apologetic smile in a
+pretty young face, of red curls knocked into disarray--and of
+amazingly short shorts and a tantalizingly wispy halter.
+
+She recovered the notebook she had dropped and hurried on, leaving a
+faint cloud of perfume in her wake and a disturbing memory of curving,
+golden tan legs and a flat little stomach that had been exposed both
+north and south to the extreme limits of modesty.
+
+"A personnel supervisor from Beachville," Larue said. "She was
+sunbathing when the plane arrived to pick her up and had no time to
+obtain other clothing. Father Brenn firmly insisted upon losing not
+one minute of time during this emergency."
+
+A crane rumbled into view and its grapples seized the huge object that
+had fallen.
+
+"Our central air-conditioning unit," Larue said. "It had to go."
+
+"You're putting something else in its place, of course?"
+
+"Oh yes. We must have more space but Father Brenn opposed the plan of
+building an annex as too dangerously time consuming. The only
+alternative is to tear out everything not absolutely essential."
+
+Kane left shortly afterward, satisfied that the Saints were doing as
+Brenn had said.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He went back out in the spring sunshine where the turbo-car was still
+waiting for him, debated briefly with himself, and dismissed the
+driver. After so many weeks in the prison-like ship, it would be
+pleasant to walk again.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A grassy, tree-covered ridge ran like the swell of a green sea
+between the plant and the town. He stopped on top of it, where the
+town was almost hidden from view, and looked out across the wide
+valley. Shadows moved lazily across it as cotton-puff clouds drifted
+down the blue dome of the sky, great white birds like swans were
+soaring overhead, calling to one another in voices like the singing of
+violins, bringing again the memories of the Lost Islands--
+
+"And the Vogarian lord gazed upon his world and found it good!"
+
+He swung around, his hand dropping to his holstered blaster, and
+looked into the green, mocking eyes of a tawny-haired girl. She was
+beautiful, in the savage way that the hill leopards of Vogar were
+beautiful, and her hand was on a pistol in her belt.
+
+Her eyes flickered from his blaster up to his face, bright with
+challenge.
+
+"Want to try it?" she asked.
+
+She wore a short skirt of some rough material and her knees were
+dusty, as though she had walked for a long way. These things he
+noticed only absently, his eyes going back to the bold, beautiful
+face. For twenty years he had been accustomed to the women of Vogar;
+colorless in their Party uniforms and men's haircuts, made even more
+drab by the masculine mannerisms they affected. Not since the spring
+the Lost Islands died had he seen a girl like the one before him.
+
+"Well?" she asked. "Do you think you'll know me next time?"
+
+He walked to her, while she watched him with catlike wariness.
+
+"Hand me that pistol," he ordered.
+
+"Try to take it, you Vogarian ape!"
+
+He moved, and a moment later she was sitting on the ground, her eyes
+wide with dismayed surprise as he shoved the pistol in his own belt.
+
+"Resisting a Vogarian with a deadly weapon calls for the death
+penalty," he said. "I suppose you know what I can do?"
+
+She got up, defiance like a blaze about her.
+
+"I'll tell you what you can do--you can go to hell!"
+
+The thought came to him that there might be considerable pleasure in
+laying her over his knee and raising some blisters where they would do
+her the most good. He regretfully dismissed the idea as too
+undignified for even a sub-ensign and asked:
+
+"Who are you, and what are you doing here with that pistol?"
+
+She hesitated, then answered with insolent coolness:
+
+"My name is Barbara Loring. I heard that you Vogarians had demanded
+that we agree to surrender. I came down from the hills to disagree."
+
+"Is a resistance force meeting here?"
+
+"Do you think you could make me tell you?"
+
+"There are ways--but I'm not here to use them. I am not your enemy."
+
+A little of the hostility faded from her face and she asked, "But how
+could a Vogarian ever not be our enemy?"
+
+He could find no satisfactory answer to the question.
+
+"I can tell you this," she said. "I know of no resistance
+organization. I can also tell you that we're not the race of cowards
+you think and we'll fight the instant Father Brenn gives the word."
+
+"For one who speaks respectfully of Brenn," he said, "your recent
+words and actions weren't very religious and refined."
+
+Fire flashed in the green eyes again. "Up in the Azure Mountains,
+where I come from, we're not very refined and we like being that way!"
+
+"And why do you carry guns?" he asked.
+
+"Because all along our frontier lines are rhino-stags, cliff bears,
+thunder hawks, and a lot of other overgrown carnivora that don't like
+us--that's why."
+
+"I see." He took the pistol from his belt and held it out to her. "Go
+back to your mountains, where you belong, before you do something to
+get yourself executed."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Y'Nor, waiting impatiently in the ship, was grimly pleased by the news
+of Brenn's change of attitude.
+
+"Exactly as I predicted, as you no doubt recall. How long until they
+can have a thousand units of fuel produced?"
+
+"Larue estimated fourteen days at best."
+
+Y'Nor tapped his thick fingers on his desk, scowling thoughtfully. "As
+little as seven extra days might force Vogar to accept the Alkorian
+peace terms because of lack of fuel--the natives can work twice as
+hard as they expected to. Tell old Brenn they will be given exactly
+seven days from sunrise tomorrow.
+
+"And summon Dalon and Graver. I want them to make use of every man on
+the ship for a twenty-four hour guard-and-inspection system in the
+plant. The natives will get no opportunities for stalling or
+sabotage."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Brenn was writing at his book-laden table when Kane went into his
+cottage the next morning.
+
+"These are called edicts," Brenn said, after greeting him, "but I
+possess no law-making powers and they are really only suggestions."
+
+Brenn shoved the paper to one side. The script was somewhat different
+from that of Vogar.
+
+_The Vogarian inspection and guard system is no more than an expected
+precaution against sabotage. The Vogarians must be regarded as
+potential friends who now treat us with suspicion and arrogance only
+because they do not yet realize the sincerity of our desire to help
+them to any extent short of surrender--_
+
+Kane looked up from the uncompleted, surprisingly humble, edict and
+Brenn asked:
+
+"Your commander, sir--he is now pleased with our actions?"
+
+"Not exactly. He will disintegrate a town seven days from sunrise this
+morning if all the fuel isn't produced by then."
+
+"_Seven_--only _seven_ days?" There was startled disbelief on Brenn's
+face. "But how can he expect us to produce so much fuel in so short a
+time?"
+
+"I don't know. I'm sorry--it's something I would have argued against
+if I hadn't had too much sense to try."
+
+"Seven days--" Brenn said again. "We can only pray that God will let
+it be time enough."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Kane walked on to the plant. The hilltop where he had met the girl was
+deserted and he felt a vague disappointment.
+
+The plant was hot without the air-conditioner, especially in the
+vicinity of the electronic roasters. The girls looked flushed and
+uncomfortable, but for the redhead who still wore her scanty sunsuit.
+The armed Vogarians looked incongruously out of place among the girls
+and were sweating profusely. Kane made a mental note to have them
+ordered into tropical uniforms.
+
+He found Dalon prowling like a wolf among his guards.
+
+"It's inconceivable that these women could ever be a menace," Dalon
+said, "but I'm taking no chances."
+
+He saw Graver, the cruiser's Chief Technician; a thin, dry man who
+seemed to be as emotionless as the machines and electronic circuits
+that were his life.
+
+"They're doing everything with astonishing competence," Graver said.
+"My technicians are watching like hawks, though."
+
+Larue was not in his office. His secretary, a brown-eyed woman of
+strikingly intelligent appearance, said, "I'm sorry, sir--Dr. Larue
+had to go back to town for a few minutes. May I give him your
+message?"
+
+"No, thanks," he said. "Father Brenn is probably performing that
+unpleasant chore right now."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Since Dalon and Graver seemed to have the situation at the plant well
+in hand, Kane decided to make a tour of the outer provinces where the
+ores were being mined. An efficient plant would be worthless if it did
+not receive sufficient ore.
+
+He spent four days on the inspection tour; much longer than he had
+expected to be gone but made necessary by the fact that the small
+Elusium mines were widely scattered in rugged, roadless areas and he
+had to walk most of the distance. The single helicopter on Sanctuary
+was being used to fly the ore out but it was operating on a schedule
+that caused him to miss it each time.
+
+Each mine was being worked by full day-and-night crews; in fact, by
+more men than necessary. The reason for that, and for the way the men
+silently withheld their hostility, was made apparent in a bit of
+conversation between two miners that he overheard one day:
+
+_"... So why all of us here when not this many are needed?"_
+
+_"They say Father Brenn wanted to get all the men out of town, away
+from the cruiser, so there would be no trouble--and you know there
+would have been if we had stayed. He wants to get the cruiser on its
+way back to Vogar, they say, so we can get busy producing weapons to
+fight the Occupation force...."_
+
+He returned on the fifth evening of the allotted seven days and
+stopped by Brenn's cottage before going on to the ship. The old man
+was working in his garden, his trembling hands trying to tie up a
+red-flowered vine.
+
+Kane tied it for him and he said, "Thank you, sir. Did you find the
+mining to be as I had said?"
+
+"I found more than that. You know, don't you, that Y'Nor will return
+with the Occupation force a hundred days after leaving here?"
+
+"Yes--I know that that is his intention."
+
+"I understand that you're going to try to build weapons while he's
+gone. Don't, if you think anything of your people, let them do it.
+Nothing you could build in a hundred days would last a minute against
+a cruiser's disintegrators."
+
+"I know," Brenn said. "We are supposed to choose between bloody,
+hopeless resistance and eternal slavery, aren't we? But why should
+either fate befall a peaceful race?"
+
+Kane asked the logical question: "Why shouldn't it?"
+
+"The laws of God have always been laws of justice and mercy. Not even
+the Vogarian State can change them."
+
+He thought of the way the State had changed the Lost Islands in one
+bloody, violent afternoon. Brenn, watching his face, said:
+
+"You are skeptical and bitter, my son--but you will learn that a
+harmless old man can speak with wisdom."
+
+"No," he said. "There is neither justice nor mercy in the universe. I
+know from experience. A man can only choose between the lesser of two
+evils--and almost anything is less evil than Y'Nor when he's mad."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He went to the plant the next morning. Inside, wherever he looked, he
+saw girls in shorts and halters. The place seemed to be alive with
+partially clad women. He went to the nearest bulletin board and read
+Brenn's edict of four days before:
+
+_Since the excessively warm temperature of the plant causes much
+discomfort and thereby impairs the efficiency of all workers, and
+since maximum efficiency will be required to produce the fuel in the
+extremely short time permitted us, it is suggested that the cool
+sunsuits of the Beachville girls become the standard work uniform
+until further notice. These may be obtained for the asking in
+Department 5-A._
+
+The next day's edict read:
+
+_Some have hesitated to follow yesterday's edict through a sense of
+modesty. This is most commendable. However, the situation is very
+critical, our lives depend upon the highest degree of efficiency we
+can attain, and a hot, miserable worker is not efficient. Your bodies
+are God's handwork--do not be ashamed of them._
+
+The edict for the next day read simply, warningly:
+
+_THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Vogarian guards and inspectors, now in tropical uniforms, still
+looked out of place with their holstered weapons but their former
+cold arrogance was gone and the attitude of the girls had changed from
+polite reserve to laughing, chattering friendliness.
+
+He found Dalon in a far corner; cornered, literally, by the red-haired
+personnel supervisor who was spitting like a cat as she said:
+
+"... Then tell your commander how one of your men tried to make one of
+my girls and got hit with a wrench for it! Ask him whether he wants us
+to produce fuel or make love! Go ahead--ask him! Or let me--_I'll_ ask
+him!"
+
+"You'll have to see to it that your girls don't lead my men on." Dalon
+ran his finger around his collar, worry on his face. "Florence, are
+you trying to get me ruined?"
+
+"Then inform your men that there is a certain commandment we all
+believe in and anything beyond our willingness to be friends calls for
+marriage first."
+
+"_Marriage?_" Dalon spluttered the word, recovered his poise with an
+effort, and said stiffly, "My men are soldiers, not suitors. I want
+them respected as such."
+
+He strode away without seeing Kane. The girl stared after him, fuming,
+and Kane went in search of Graver.
+
+Graver and the brown-eyed secretary were in Larue's office, their
+heads together over a flow sheet of some kind. The secretary excused
+herself and when she was gone, Kane asked:
+
+"Where's Larue?"
+
+"Checking the catalytic processors, I think, sir." Graver answered,
+almost vaguely. "Mar ... his secretary was just showing me how they
+improvised so much of their equipment so quickly." There was a strange
+light in Graver's usually expressionless eyes. "It's incredible!"
+
+"Well--the commander gave them no time to waste, you know."
+
+"Sir? Oh ... I was referring to her intelligence, sir. It's amazing
+that a woman should have such a thorough knowledge of such a complex
+process."
+
+Kane felt the birth pains of the first dark premonition.
+
+"If you don't want a thorough knowledge of the interior of State
+prison," he said in grim warning, "you'd better get that silly look
+off your face and concentrate on your duties. Tell Dalon the same
+order applies to him. And tell Larue that the commander reminds him
+they now have less than forty hours to finish the job."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He decided, again, to walk back to the ship. There was now a multitude
+of paths through the grass were girls had been walking to and from
+work. Two groups from the last shift-change were a short distance
+ahead of him, several of Dalon's guards and Graver's technicians among
+them, all of them talking and laughing.
+
+In that area they could not be spied upon by Y'Nor with the ship's
+view-screen scanners and even as he watched, a tall, dark young guard
+put his arm around the girl walking close beside him. She twisted away
+from him and ran on to the next group, there to look back with a
+teasing toss of her head.
+
+Kane watched both groups disappear over the hill, then followed,
+muttering thoughtfully. He felt he could safely assume--if anything
+could be said to be safe about the situation--that the lack of
+discipline he had just witnessed was typical of all the men. They were
+all young and healthy and for sixteen hours out of each day they were
+side by side with the almost nude, provocatively feminine, Sanctuary
+girls.
+
+Their weakness was understandable. It was also very dangerous. Heads
+would roll if Y'Nor ever learned what was going on and it required no
+psychic ability to guess whose head would roll the fastest and
+farthest.
+
+He would have to have it stopped, at once.
+
+He took a short cut to Brenn's cottage, by a sleepy, shady street he
+had never been down before. Halfway along it was an open-air eating
+place of some kind, with tables placed about under the trees. There
+seemed to be no customers at the moment but he stopped, anyway, to
+take a closer look for errant guards.
+
+A tawny head lifted at a table half hidden by a nearby tree and he
+looked into the surprised face of the mountain girl, Barbara.
+
+"Well!" she said. "Come on over and let me offer you a glass of
+cyanide."
+
+He walked over to her table. She was wearing a blouse and skirt
+similar to that of the day he had met her but the pistol was gone.
+
+"I thought I told you to go back to your hills," he said.
+
+"I decided it would be more fun to work in the plant and sabotage
+things."
+
+"Let Y'Nor learn you said that and you'll be in a fix I can't help you
+out of."
+
+"Should a Vogarian care?" But the jeering was gone as she said, "When
+you gave my pistol back to me--I thought it was a trick of some kind."
+
+"I told you I wasn't your enemy."
+
+"I know ... but it's hard for a Saint to believe any Vogarian could
+ever be anything else."
+
+"It doesn't seem to be very hard for the girls in the plant," he
+observed glumly.
+
+"Oh ... that's different." She made a gesture of light dismissal.
+"Those soldiers and technicians are good boys at heart--they haven't
+been brain-washed like you officers."
+
+"That's interesting to know, I'm sure. I suppose--"
+
+He stopped as a gray-haired woman came and set down a tray containing
+a sandwich and a mug. From the foamy top of the mug came the
+unmistakable aroma of beer.
+
+"Do you Saints _drink_?" he asked incredulously.
+
+"Sure. Why?"
+
+"But your church--"
+
+"Earth churches used to ban alcohol as sinful because it would cause a
+mean person to show his true character. My church is more sensible
+and works to change the person's character, instead."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+She took a bite of the sandwich. "Cliff bear steak--it and beer go
+perfectly together. Shall I order you some?"
+
+"No," he said, thinking of Y'Nor's fury if Y'Nor should learn he had
+had a friendly lunch with a native girl. "About your church--what kind
+of a church is it, anyway?"
+
+"What its name implies. Heaven isn't for sale at the pulpit--everybody
+has to qualify for it by his own actions. We have to practice our
+belief--just looking pious and saying that we believe doesn't count."
+
+He revised his opinion of the Saints, then asked, "But were you
+practicing your Golden Rule when you came to this town with a gun to
+shoot Vogarians?"
+
+"For Vogarians we have a special Golden Rule that reads: _Do unto
+Vogarians as they have come to do unto you._ And you came here to
+enslave or kill us--remember?"
+
+It could not be denied. When he did not answer she smiled at him; a
+smile surprisingly gentle and understanding.
+
+"You honestly would like to be our friend, wouldn't you? The State
+psychiatrists didn't do a good job of brainwashing you, after all."
+
+It was the first time since he was sixteen that anyone had spoken to
+him with genuine kindness. It gave him a strange feeling, a lonely
+sense of something rising up out of the past to mock him, and he
+changed the subject:
+
+"Are the Azure Mountains the edge of your frontier?"
+
+She nodded. "Beyond is the Emerald Plain, a great, wide plain, and
+beyond it are mountain ranges that have never been named or explored.
+I'm going into them some day and--"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Time passed with astonishing speed as he talked with the girl and it
+was late in the afternoon when he continued on to Brenn's cottage. He
+put the thoughts of her from his mind and told Brenn of the too-warm
+association between the girls and the Vogarians.
+
+"But it is only friendship," Brenn said soothingly. "You can assure
+your commander that nothing immoral is being done."
+
+"If he knew what was going on, it would be my neck. It has to be
+stopped. Write an edict--do anything that will stop it at once."
+
+Brenn stroked his white beard thoughtfully. "I'm sorry this unforeseen
+situation has occurred, sir. Will you have strict orders to the same
+effect given your men?"
+
+"There's a severe penalty for unauthorized fraternization. I'll see
+that they're well reminded of it."
+
+"I'll write another edict, at once, forbidding the girls to speak to
+your men, sir."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Y'Nor was pacing the floor when Kane went to the ship, his face black
+and ugly with anger.
+
+"Have you been blind?" he demanded.
+
+Kane tried to swallow a sinking feeling, wondering just how much Y'Nor
+had seen, and said, "Sir?"
+
+"My guards--my so-called guards--how long have they been strolling
+back from the plant in company with the native women?"
+
+"Oh," he said, feeling a great relief that Y'Nor had not seen the true
+situation, "it's only that some of the out-going shifts coincide, sir,
+and--"
+
+"You know, don't you, that military men march to and from duty in
+military formation?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You are aware of the importance of discipline?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You are further aware of the fact that you, Dalon, and Graver, will
+be guilty of treason if this lack of discipline imperils my plans in
+any way?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You have heard of the punishment for treason?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He went below when the unpleasant business with Y'Nor was finally
+over. It was the beginning of the eight-hour sleep period for Dalon
+and Graver but they were still up, sitting on their bunks and staring
+dreamily into space. It was only belatedly, almost fuzzily, that they
+became aware of his glowering presence in the doorway.
+
+"I bring you glad tidings," he said, "from the commander's own lips.
+The multiple-gallows at State prison is still in perfect working
+order, especially the first three trapdoors--"
+
+The last day dawned, bright and sunny, and he went to see Brenn.
+
+"I had the new edict posted immediately," Brenn said. "I hope it will
+undo the damage."
+
+"Let's see it," Kane requested and Brenn handed him the handwritten
+original. It was:
+
+_Despite our affection for the Vogarians among us, we must not
+endanger them by any longer talking to them. A Vogarian military rule
+is now being enforced which forbids Vogarians to speak to Sanctuary
+girls except in the line of duty. There is a severe penalty for those
+who disobey this rule._
+
+_It must also be pointed out, sternly to the Sanctuary girls and
+respectfully to the Vogarians, that flight into the uninhabited
+Sanctuary mountains would result in execution for the fleeing couples
+if Commander Y'Nor should ever find them._
+
+"What's this?" Kane demanded, pointing to the last paragraph.
+
+"Why--a warning, sir."
+
+"Warning ... it's a suggestion!"
+
+"A suggestion?" Brenn lifted his hands in shocked protest. "But, sir,
+how could anyone think--"
+
+"I, personally, wouldn't give a damn if the entire crew was too
+love-sick to eat. But the commander does and my future welfare,
+including the privilege of breathing, depends upon my retaining what
+passes for his good will."
+
+"Good heavens--I shall have this edict removed from the bulletin
+boards at once!"
+
+"A great idea. It should fix up everything to lock the stable door
+now that the horse is stolen."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He went to the plant and felt the air of resentment as soon as he
+stepped inside. Dalon was patrolling among his men, his haggard face
+becoming more haggard each time the red-haired personnel supervisor
+went by with her hips swinging and her head held high in hurt, aloof
+silence. The guards were pacing their beats in wordless quiet,
+Graver's technicians were speaking only in the line of duty. The girls
+were not talking even to one another but in the soft, melting glances
+they gave the Vogarians they said _We understand_ in a manner more
+eloquent than any words.
+
+In fact, far too eloquent. He considered the plan of having Brenn
+forbid the girls to look at the guards, discarded that as impractical,
+for a moment wildly considered ordering the guards not to look at the
+girls, discarded that as even more impractical, and went, muttering,
+to Larue's office.
+
+Larue was at his desk, his face lined with fatigue.
+
+"It's been a difficult job," he said, "but we'll meet the deadline."
+
+"Good," Kane answered. "Did Brenn phone you about having that edict
+removed?"
+
+"Ah--which one?"
+
+"Which one? You mean...."
+
+He turned and ran from the office.
+
+A girl was removing the offending edict from the nearest bulletin
+board. Another, later, one proclaimed:
+
+_We must abandon as hopeless the suggestion of some that if there must
+be an Occupation force, we would like for it to be these men whom we
+have come to respect, and many of us to love. This can never be. Only
+Commander Y'Nor will leave the ship at Vogar, there to select his own
+Occupation force, while the men now among us continue directly on to
+the Alkorian war from which many of them will never return._
+
+_We must not resent the fact that on this, their last day among us,
+these men are forbidden to speak to us or to let us speak to them nor
+say that this is unfair when Commander Y'Nor's Occupation troops will
+be permitted to associate freely with us. These things are beyond our
+power to change. We must accept the inevitable and show only by our
+silent conduct the love we have for these warriors whom we shall never
+see again._
+
+Kane gulped convulsively, read it again, and hurried back to Larue's
+office.
+
+"How long has that last edict been up?" he demanded.
+
+"About twelve hours."
+
+"Then every shift has seen it?"
+
+"Ah ... yes. Why--is something wrong with it?"
+
+"That depends on the viewpoint. I want them removed at once. And tell
+that sanctified old weasel that if this last edict of his gets me
+hanged, which it probably will, I'll see to it that he gets the same
+medicine."
+
+He went back into the plant and made his way through the bare-legged,
+soft-eyed girls, looking for Dalon. He overheard a guard say in low,
+bitter tones to another: "... _Maybe eight hours on Vogar, and we
+can't leave the ship, then on to the battle front for us while Y'Nor
+and his home guard favorites come back here and pick out their
+harems_--"
+
+He found Dalon and said to him, "Watch your men. They're resentful.
+Some of them might even desert--and Y'Nor wasn't joking about that
+gallows for us last night."
+
+"I know." Dalon ran his finger around the collar that seemed to be
+getting increasingly tighter for him. "I've warned them that the
+Occupation troops would get them in the end."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He found Graver at a dial-covered panel. The brown-eyed secretary--her
+eyes now darker and more appealing than ever--was just leaving, a
+notebook in her hand.
+
+"Since when," Kane asked, "has it been customary for technicians to
+need the assistance of secretaries to read a dial?"
+
+"But, sir, she is a very good technician, herself. Her paper work is
+now done and she was helping me trace a circuit that was fluctuating."
+
+Kane peered suspiciously into Graver's expressionless face.
+
+"Are you sure it was a circuit that was doing the fluctuating?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Did you know that half of Dalon's guards seem to be ready to jump
+ship?"
+
+"Yes, sir. But their resentment is not characteristic of my
+technicians."
+
+He realized, with surprise, that that was true. And Graver, in
+contrast to Dalon's agitation, had the calm, purposeful air of a man
+who had pondered deeply upon an unpleasant future and had taken steps
+to prevent it.
+
+"I have no desire to hang, sir, and I have convinced my men that it
+would be suicide for part of them to desert. I shall do my best to
+convince Dalon's guards of the same thing."
+
+He went back through the plant, much of his confidence restored, and
+back to the ship.
+
+Y'Nor was pacing the floor again, his impatience keying him to a mood
+more vile than ever.
+
+"This ship will leave at exactly twenty-three fifteen, Vogar time,"
+Y'Nor said. "Any man not on it then will be regarded as a deserter and
+executed as such when I return with the Occupation force."
+
+He stopped his pacing to stare at Kane with the ominous anticipation
+of a spider surveying a captured fly.
+
+"Although I can operate this ship with a minimum of two crewmen, I
+shall expect you to make certain that every man is on board."
+
+Kane went back out of the ship, his confidence shaken again, and back
+to the plant.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Night came at last and, finally, the first shielded tank of fuel was
+delivered to the ship. Others followed, one by one, as the hours went
+by.
+
+It was almost morning when Graver came to him and said, "My duties and
+those of my men are finished here, sir. Shall we go to prepare the
+ship for flight?"
+
+"Yes--get busy at it," Kane answered. "Don't give the commander any
+excuse to get any madder than he already is."
+
+An hour later the last of the fuel went into the last tank and was
+hauled away. Someone said, "That's all," and a switch clicked. A
+machine rumbled off into silence, followed by others. Control panels
+went dark. Within a minute there was not a machine running, not a
+panel lighted.
+
+Dalon's whistle for Guard Assembly sounded, high and shrill. A girl's
+voice called to one of the guards: "Hurry back to your ship,
+Billy--the thunder hawks might get you if you stayed--" and broke on a
+sob. Another girl said, "Hush, Julia--it's not his fault."
+
+He went out of the plant, and past Larue's office. He saw that the
+brown-eyed secretary was gone, her desk clean. Larue was still there,
+looking very tired. He did not go in. The fuel had been produced, he
+would never see Larue again.
+
+He took the path that led toward town. Part of the Whirlpool star
+cluster was still above the horizon, a white blaze of a thousand suns,
+and the eastern sky was lightening with the first rays of dawn. A
+dozen girls were ahead of him, their voices a low murmur as they
+hurried back toward town. There was an undertone of tension, all of
+the former gaiety gone. The brief week of make-believe was over and
+the next Vogarians to come would truly be their enemy.
+
+He came to the hilltop where he had met the mountain girl, thought of
+her with irrational longing, and suddenly she was there before him.
+
+The pistol was again in her belt.
+
+"You came with all the stealth of a plains ox," she said. "I could
+have shot you a dozen times over."
+
+"Are we already at war?" he asked.
+
+"We Saints have to let you Vogarians kill some of us, first--our
+penalty for being ethical."
+
+"Listen to me," he said. "We tried to fight the inevitable in the Lost
+Islands. When the sun went down that day, half of us were dead and the
+rest prisoners."
+
+"And you rose from prisoner to officer because you were too selfish to
+keep fighting for what was right."
+
+"I saw them bury the ones who insisted on doing that."
+
+"And you want us to meekly bow down, here?"
+
+"I have no interest of any kind in this world--I'll never see it
+again--but I know from experience what will happen to you and your
+people if you try to fight. I don't want that to happen. Do you think
+that because a man isn't a blind chauvinist, he has to be a soulless
+monster?"
+
+"No," she said in a suddenly small voice. "But I had hoped ... we were
+talking that day of the mountains beyond the Emerald Plain and a
+frontier to last for centuries ... it was just idle talk but I thought
+maybe that when the showdown came you would be on our side, after
+all."
+
+She drew a deep breath that came a little raggedly and said with a
+lightness that was too forced:
+
+"You don't mind if I have a silly sentimental fondness for my world,
+do you? It's the only world I have. Maybe you would understand if you
+could see the Azure Mountains in the spring ... but you never will,
+will you? Because you lied when you said you weren't my enemy and now
+I know you are and I"--the lightness faltered and broke--"am yours ...
+and the next time we meet one will have to kill the other."
+
+She turned away, and vanished among the trees like a shadow.
+
+He was unaware of the passage of time as he stood there on the hill
+that was silent with her going and remembered the day he had met her
+and the way the song swans had been calling. When he looked up at the
+sky, it was bright gold in the east and the blazing stars of the
+Whirlpool were fading into invisibility. He looked to the west, where
+the road wound its long way out of the valley, and he thought he could
+see her trudging up it, tiny and distant. He looked at his watch and
+saw he had just time enough to reach the ship before it left.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Brenn was standing by his gate, watching the dawn flame into
+incandescence and looking more frail and helpless than ever. The
+cruiser towered beyond, blotting out half the dawn sky like a sinister
+omen. A faint, deep hum was coming from it as the drive went into the
+preliminary phase that preceded take-off.
+
+"You have only seconds left to reach the ship," Brenn said. "You have
+already tarried almost too long."
+
+"You're looking at a fool," he answered, "who is going to tarry in the
+Azure Mountains and beyond the Emerald Plain for a hundred days. Then
+the Occupation men will kill him."
+
+There was no surprise on Brenn's face but it seemed to Kane that the
+old man smiled in his beard. For the second time since he was sixteen,
+Kane heard someone speak to him with gentle understanding:
+
+"Although you have not been of much help to my plans, your intentions
+were good. I was sure that in the end this would be your decision. I
+am well pleased with you, my son."
+
+A whine came from the ship and the boarding ramp flicked up like a
+disappearing tongue. The black opening of the air lock seemed to
+wink, then was solid, featureless metal as the doors slid shut.
+
+"_Bon voyage_, Y'Nor!" Kane said. "We'll be waiting for you with our
+bows and arrows."
+
+"There is no one on the ship but Y'Nor," Brenn said. "Graver saw to it
+that the Ready lights were all going on the command room control
+board, then he and all the others followed my ... suggestion."
+
+Kane remembered Graver's calmness and his statement concerning his
+men: "... It would be suicide for part of them to desert."
+
+For _part_ of them. But if every last one deserted--
+
+The drives of the ship roared as Y'Nor pushed a control button and the
+ship lifted slowly. The roaring faltered and died as Y'Nor pushed
+another button which called for a crewman who was not there. The ship
+dropped back with a ponderous thud, careened, and fell with a force
+that shook the ground. It made no further sound or movement.
+
+He stared at the silent, impotent ship, finding it hard to realize
+that there would be no hundred-day limit for him; that the new world,
+the boundless frontier--and Barbara--would be his for as long as he
+lived.
+
+"Poor Commander Y'Nor," Brenn said. "The air lock is now under the
+ship and we shall have to dig a tunnel to rescue him."
+
+"Don't hurry about it," Kane advised. "Let him sweat in the dark for a
+few days with his desk wrapped around his neck. It will do him good."
+
+"We are a kind and harmless race, we could never do anything like
+that."
+
+"Kind? I believe you. But harmless? You made monkeys out of Vogar's
+choicest fighting men."
+
+"Please do not use such an uncouth expression. I was only the humble
+instrument of a greater Power. I only ... ah ... encouraged the
+natural affection between man and maid, the love that God intended
+them to have."
+
+"But did you practice your Golden Rule? You saw to it that fifty young
+men were forced to associate day after day with hundreds of
+almost-naked girls. Would you really have wanted the same thing done
+to you if you had been in their place?"
+
+"Would I?" There was a gleam in the old eyes that did not seem to come
+from the brightness of the dawn. "I, too, was once young, my son--what
+do _you_ think?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Helpful Hand of God, by Tom Godwin
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30322 ***