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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/30583-h.zip b/30583-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d718657 --- /dev/null +++ b/30583-h.zip diff --git a/30583-h/30583-h.htm b/30583-h/30583-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..55de829 --- /dev/null +++ b/30583-h/30583-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1639 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Asses of Balaam, by David Gordon + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + + +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.p1 { font-size:xx-large; font-weight:bold; } +.f1 { margin-left: 30%; } + +.center {text-align: center;} + + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft1 { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-right: 0.25em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Asses of Balaam, by Gordon Randall Garrett + +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: The Asses of Balaam + +Author: Gordon Randall Garrett + +Illustrator: Schoenherr + +Release Date: December 2, 2009 [EBook #30583] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ASSES OF BALAAM *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p class="center">This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact Fiction October 1961. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/image_001.jpg" width="300" height="364" alt="" /> +</div> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="p1"> +THE<br /><br /> +ASSES<br /><br /> +OF<br /><br /> +BALAAM +</p> +<p> </p> +<h2>By DAVID GORDON</h2> +<p> </p> +<h3>Illustrated by Schoenherr</h3> + + + + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>The remarkable characteristic of Balaam's ass was that it +was more perceptive than its master. Sometimes a child is +more perceptive—because more straightforward and +logical—than an adult....</i></p></div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/image_002.jpg" width="300" height="462" alt="" /> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>It is written in the Book of Numbers that Balaam, a wise +man of the Moabites, having been ordered by the King of Moab +to put a curse upon the invading Israelites, mounted himself +upon an ass and rode forth toward the camp of the Children +of Israel. On the road, he met an angel with drawn sword, +barring the way. Balaam, not seeing or recognizing the +angel, kept urging his ass forward, but the ass recognized +the angel and turned aside. Balaam smote the beast and +forced it to return to the path, and again the angel blocked +the way with drawn sword. And again the ass turned aside, +despite the beating from Balaam, who, in his blindness, was +unable to see the angel.</i></p> + +<p><i>When the ass stopped for the third time and lay down, +refusing to go further, Balaam waxed exceeding wrath and +smote again the animal with a stick.</i></p> + +<p><i>Then the ass spoke and said: "Why dost thou beat me? I have +always obeyed thee and never have I failed thee. Have I ever +been known to fail thee?"</i></p> + +<p><i>And Balaam answered: "No." And at that moment his eyes were +opened and he saw the angel before him.</i></p></div> + +<p class="f1">—STUDIES IN SCRIPTURE</p> + +<p class="f1">by Ceggawynn of Eboricum</p> +<p> </p> +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="51" height="50" /></div> +<p>ith the careful precision of controlled anger, Dodeth Pell rippled a +stomp along his right side. +<i>Clop</i>clopclop<i>clop</i>-clopclop-<i>clop</i>clop-clop<i>clop</i>clopclop.... +Each of his twelve right feet came down in turn while he glared across the +business bench at Wygor Bedis. He started the ripple again, while he +waited for Wygor's answer. The ripple was a good deal more effective than +just tapping one's fingers, and equally as satisfying.</p> + +<p>Wygor Bedis twitched his mouth and allowed his eyelids to slide up +over his eyeballs in a slow blink before answering. Dodeth had simply +asked, "Why wasn't this reported to me before?" But Wygor couldn't +find the answer as simply as that. Not that he didn't have a good +answer; it was just that he wanted to couch it in exactly the right +terms. Dodeth had a way with raking sarcasm that made a person tend +to cringe.</p> + +<p>Dodeth was perfectly well aware of that. He hadn't been in the +Executive Office of Predator Council all these years for nothing; he +knew how to handle people—when to praise them, when to flatter them, +when to rebuke them, and when to drag them unmercifully over the +shell-bed.</p> + +<p>He waited, his right legs marching out their steady rhythm.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Wygor at last, "it was just that I couldn't see any point +in bothering you with it at that point. I mean, <i>one</i> specimen—"</p> + +<p>"Of an entirely new species!" snapped Dodeth in a sudden interruption. +His legs stopped their rhythmic tramp. His voice rose from its usual +eight-thousand-cycle rumble to a shrill squeak. "Fry it, Wygor, if you +weren't such a good field man, I'd have sacked you long ago! Your +trouble is that you have a penchant for bringing me problems that you +ought to be able to solve by yourself and then flipping right over on +your back and holding off on some information that ought to be brought +to my attention immediately!"</p> + +<p>There wasn't much Wygor could say to that, so he didn't try. He simply +waited for the raking to come, and, sure enough, it came.</p> + +<p>Dodeth's voice lowered itself to a soft purr. "The next time you have +to do anything as complicated as setting a snith-trap, you just hump +right down here and ask me, and I'll tell you all about it. On the +other hand, if the lower levels all suddenly become infested with +shelks at the same time, why, you just take care of that little detail +yourself, eh? The only other alternative is to learn to think."</p> + +<p>Wygor winced a trifle and kept his mouth shut.</p> + +<p>Having delivered himself of his jet of acid, Dodeth Pell looked down +at the data booklet that Wygor had handed him. "Fortunately," he said, +"there doesn't seem to be much to worry about. Only the Universal +Motivator knows how this thing could have spawned, but it doesn't +appear to be very efficient."</p> + +<p>"No, sir, it doesn't," said Wygor, taking heart from his superior's +mild tone. "The eating orifice is oddly placed, and the teeth are +obviously for grinding purposes."</p> + +<p>"I was thinking more of the method of locomotion," Dodeth said. "I +believe this is a record, although I'll have to look in the files to +make sure. I think that six locomotive limbs is the least I've ever +heard of on an animal that size."</p> + +<p>"I've checked the files," said Wygor. "There was a four-limbed +leaf-eater recorded seven hundred years ago—four locomotive limbs, +that is, and two grasping. But it was only as big as your hand."</p> + +<p>Dodeth looked through the three pages of the booklet. There wasn't +much there, really, but he knew Wygor well enough to know that all the +data he had thus far was there. The only thing that rankled was that +Wygor had delayed for three work periods before reporting the +intrusion of the new beast, and now five of them had been spotted.</p> + +<p>He looked at the page which showed the three bathygraphs that had been +taken of the new animals from a distance. There was something odd +about them, and Dodeth couldn't, for the hide of him, figure out what +it was. It aroused an odd fear in him, and made him want to burrow +deeper into the ground.</p> + +<p>"I can't see what keeps 'em from falling over," he said at last. "Are +they as slow-moving as they look?"</p> + +<p>"They don't move very fast," Wygor admitted, "but we haven't seen any +of them startled yet. I don't see how they could run very fast, +though. It must take every bit of awareness they have to stay balanced +on two legs."</p> + +<p>Dodeth sighed whistlingly and pushed the data booklet back across the +business bench to Wygor. "All right; I'll file the preliminary +spotting report. Now get out there and get me some pertinent data on +this queer beast. Scramble off."</p> + +<p>"Right away, sir."</p> + +<p>"And ... Wygor—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir?"</p> + +<p>"It's apparent that we have a totally new species here. It will be +called a <i>wygorex</i>, of course, but it would be better if we waited +until we could make a full report to the Keepers. So don't let any of +this out—especially to the other Septs."</p> + +<p>"Certainly not, sir; not a whistle. Anything else?"</p> + +<p>"Just keep me posted, that's all. Scramble off."</p> + +<p>After Wygor had obediently scrambled off, Dodeth relaxed all his knees +and sank to his belly in thought.</p> + +<p>His job was not an easy one. He would like to have his office get full +credit for discovering a new species, just as Wygor had—understandably +enough—wanted to get his share of the credit. On the other hand, one had +to be careful that holding back information did not constitute any danger +to the Balance. Above all, the Balance must be preserved. Even the snith +had its place in the Ecological Balance of the World—although one didn't +like to think about sniths as being particularly useful.</p> + +<p>After all, every animal, every planet had its place in the scheme; +each contributed its little bit to maintaining the Balance. Each had +its niche in the ecological architecture, as Dodeth liked to think of +it. The trouble was that the Balance was a shifting, swinging, +ever-changing thing. Living tissues carried the genes of heredity in +them, and living tissues are notoriously plastic under the influence +of the proper radiation or particle bombardment. And animals <i>would</i> +cross the poles.</p> + +<p>The World had been excellently designed by the Universal Motivator for +the development and evolution of life. Again, the concept of the +Balance showed in His mighty works. Suppose, for instance, that the +World rotated more rapidly about its axis, thereby exposing the whole +surface periodically to the deadly radiation of the Blue Sun, instead +of having a rotation period that, combined with the eccentricity of +the World's orbit, gave it just enough libration to expose only +sixty-three per cent to the rays, leaving the remaining thirty-seven +per cent in twilight or darkness. Or suppose the orbit were so nearly +circular that there were no perceptible libration at all; one side +would burn eternally, and the other side would freeze, since there +would be no seasonal winds blowing first east, then west, bringing the +warmth of the Blue Sun from the other side.</p> + +<p>Or, again, suppose there were no Moon and no Yellow Sun to give light +to the dark side. Who could live in an everlasting night?</p> + +<p>Or suppose that the magnetic field of the World were too weak to focus +the majority of the Blue Sun's output of electrons and ions on the +poles. How could life have evolved at all?</p> + +<p>Balance. And the Ultimate Universal Motivator had put part of the +responsibility into the hands of His only intelligent species. And a +part of that part had been put into the hands of Dodeth Pell as the +head of Predator Control.</p> + +<p>Fry it! Something was niggling at the back of Dodeth's mind, and no +amount of philosophizing would shake it. He reached into the drawer of +the business bench and pulled out the duplicate of Wygor's data +booklet. He flipped it open and looked at the bathygraphs again.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>There was no single thing about them that he could pinpoint, but the +beasts just didn't <i>look</i> right. Dodeth Pell had seen many monstrous +animals in his life, but none like this.</p> + +<p>Most people disliked and were disgusted by a snith because of the +uncanny resemblance the stupid beast had to the appearance of Dodeth's +own race. There could be no question of the genetic linkage between +the two species, but, in spite of the physical similarities, their +actions were controlled almost entirely by instinct instead of reason. +They were like some sort of idiot parody of intelligent beings.</p> + +<p>But it was their similarity which made them loathsome. Why should +Dodeth Pell feel a like emotion when he saw the bathygraphs of the +two-legged thing? Certainly there was no similarity.</p> + +<p>Wait a minute!</p> + +<p>He looked carefully at the three-dimensional pictures again.</p> + +<p>Fry it! He couldn't be sure—</p> + +<p>After all, he wasn't a geneticist. Checking the files wouldn't be +enough; he wouldn't know how to ask the proper cross-filing questions.</p> + +<p>He lolled his tongue out and absently rasped at a slight itch on the +back of his hand while he thought.</p> + +<p>If his hunch were correct, then it was time to call in outside help +now, instead of waiting for more information. Still, he needn't +necessarily call in official expert help just yet. If he could just +get a lead—enough to verify or disprove the possibility of his hunch +being correct—that would be enough for a day or two, until Wygor got +more data.</p> + +<p>There was always Yerdeth, an older parabrother on his prime-father's +side. Yerdeth had studied genetics—theoretical, not applied—with the +thought of going into Control, and kept on dabbling in it even after +he had discovered that his talents lay in the robot design field.</p> + +<p>"Ardan!" he said sharply.</p> + +<p>At the other end of the office, the robot assistant ceased his work +for a moment. "Yes, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Come here a minute; I want you to look at something."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>The robot's segmented body was built very much like Dodeth's own, +except that instead of the twelve pairs of legs that supported +Dodeth's body, the robot was equipped with wheels, each suspended +separately and equipped with its individual power source. Ardan rolled +sedately across the floor, his metallic body gleaming in the light +from the low ceiling. He came to a halt in front of Dodeth's business +bench.</p> + +<p>Dodeth handed Ardan the thin data booklet. "Scan through that."</p> + +<p>Ardan went through it rapidly, his eyes carefully scanning each page, +his brain recording everything permanently. After a few seconds, he +looked back up at Dodeth. "A new species."</p> + +<p>"Exactly. Did you notice anything odd about their appearance?"</p> + +<p>"Naturally," said Ardan. "Since their like has never been seen before, +it is axiomatic that they would appear odd."</p> + +<p><i>Fry it!</i> Dodeth thought. He should have known better than to ask a +question like that of Ardan. To ask it to determine what might be +called second-order strangeness in a pattern that was strange in the +first place was asking too much of a robot.</p> + +<p>"Very well, then. Make an appointment for this evening with Yerdeth +Pell. I would like to see him at his home if it is convenient."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said the robot.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Evening was four work-periods away, and even after Yerdeth had granted +the appointment, Dodeth found himself fidgeting in anticipation.</p> + +<p>Twice, during the following work periods, Wygor came in with more +information. He had gone above ground with a group of protection +robots, finally, to take a look at the new animals himself, but he +hadn't yet managed to obtain enough data to make a definitive report +on the strange beasts.</p> + +<p>But the lack of data was, in itself, significant.</p> + +<p>Dodeth usually liked to walk through the broad tunnels of the main +thoroughfares, since he didn't particularly care to ride robot-back +for so short a distance, but this time he was in such a hurry to see +Yerdeth that he decided to let Ardan take him.</p> + +<p>He climbed aboard, clamped his legs to the robot's sides, and said: +"To Yerdeth Pell's."</p> + +<p>The robot said "Yes, sir," and rolled out to the side tunnel that led +toward one of the main robot tunnels. When they finally came to a +tunnel labeled <i>Robots and Passengers Only</i>, Ardan rolled into it and +revved his wheels up to high speed, shooting down the tunnelway at a +much higher velocity than Dodeth could possibly have run.</p> + +<p>The tunnelway was crowded with passenger-carrying robots, and with +robots alone, carrying out orders from their masters. But there was no +danger; no robot could harm any of Dodeth's race, nor could any robot +stand idly by while someone was harmed. Even in the most crowded of +conditions, every robot in the area had one thing foremost in his +mind: the safety of every human within sight or hearing.</p> + +<p>Dodeth ignored the traffic altogether. He had other things to think +about, and he knew—without even bothering to consider it—that Ardan +could be relied upon to take care of everything. Even if it cost him +his own pseudolife, Ardan would do everything in his power to preserve +the safety and health of his passenger. Once in a while, in unusual +circumstances, a robot would even disobey orders to save a life, for +obedience was strictly secondary to the sanctity of human life, just +as the robot's desire to preserve his own pseudoliving existence was +outranked by the desire to obey.</p> + +<p>Dodeth thought about his job, but he carefully kept his mind off the +new beasts. He knew that fussing in his mind over them wouldn't do him +any good until he had more to work with—things which only his +parabrother, Yerdeth, could supply him. Besides, there was the +problem of what to do about the hurkle breeding sites, which were +being encroached upon by the quiggies. Some of the swamps on the +surface, especially those that approached the Hot Belts, were being +dried out and filled with dust, which decreased the area where the +hurkle could lay its eggs, but increased the nesting sites for +quiggies.</p> + +<p>That, of course, was a yearly cycle, in general. As the Blue Sun moved +from one side to the other, and the winds shifted accordingly, the +swamps near the Twilight Border would dry out or fill up accordingly. +But this year the eastern swamps weren't filling up as they should, +and some precautionary measures would have to be taken to prevent too +great a shift in the hurkle-quiggie balance.</p> + +<p>Then there was the compensating migratory shift of the Hotland +beasts—those which lived in the areas where the slanting rays of the +Blue Sun could actually touch them, and which could not stand the, to +them, terrible cold of the Darklands. Instead, they moved back and +forth with the Blue Sun and remained in their own area—a hot, dry, +fiery-bright hinterland occupied only by gnurrs, gpoles, and other +horrendous beasts.</p> + +<p>Beyond those areas, according to the robot patrols which had +reconnoitered there, nothing lived. Nothing could. No protoplasmic +being could exist under the direct rays of the Blue Sun. Even the +metal-and-translite bodies of a robot wouldn't long protect the +sensitive mechanisms within from the furnace heat of the huge star.</p> + +<p>Each species had its niche in the World. Some, like the hurkle, lived +in swamp water. Others lived in lakes and streams. Still others flew +in the skies or roamed the surface or climbed the great trees. Some, +like Dodeth's own people, lived beneath the surface.</p> + +<p>The one thing an intelligent species had to be most careful about was +not to disturb the balance with their abilities, but to work to +preserve it. In the past, there had been those who had built cities on +the surface, but the cities had removed the natural growth from large +areas, which, in turn, had forced the city people to import their food +from outside the cities. And that had meant an enforced increase in +the cultivation of the remaining soil, which destroyed the habitats of +other animals, besides depleting the soil itself. The only sensible +way was to live <i>under</i> the farmlands, so that no man was ever more +than a few hundred feet from the food supply. The Universal Motivator +had chosen that their species should evolve in burrows beneath the +surface, and if that was the niche chosen for Dodeth's people, then +that was obviously where they should remain to keep the Balance.</p> + +<p>Of course, the snith, too, was an underground animal, though the +tunnels were unlined. The snith's tunnels ran between and around the +armored tunnels of Dodeth's people, so that each city surrounded the +other without contact—if the burrows of the snith could properly be +called a city.</p> + +<p>"Yerdeth Pell's residence," said Ardan.</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes." Dodeth, his thoughts interrupted, slid off the back of +the robot and flexed his legs. "Wait here, Ardan. I'll be back in an +hour or so." Then he scrambled over to the door which led to Yerdeth's +apartment.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image_003.jpg" width="500" height="457" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Twenty minutes later, Yerdeth Pell looked up from the data book +facsimiles and scanned Dodeth's face with appraising eyes.</p> + +<p>"Very cute," he said at last, with a slight chuckle. "Now, what I want +to know is: is someone playing a joke on you, or are you playing a +joke on me?"</p> + +<p>Dodeth's eyelids slid upwards in a fast blink of surprise. "What do +you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Why, these bathygraphs." Yerdeth rapped the bathygraphs with a +wrinkled, horny hand. He was a good deal older than Dodeth, and his +voice had a tendency to rasp a little when the frequency went above +twenty thousand cycles. "They're very good, of course. <i>Very</i> good. +The models have very fine detail to them. The eyes, especially are +good; they look as if they really <i>ought</i> to be built that way." He +smiled and looked up at Dodeth.</p> + +<p>Dodeth resisted an urge to ripple a stomp. "Well?" he said +impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Well, they can't be real, you know," Yerdeth replied mildly.</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, come, now, Dodeth. What did it evolve from? An animal doesn't +just spring out of nowhere, you know."</p> + +<p>"New species are discovered occasionally," Dodeth said. "And there are +plenty of mutants and just plain freaks."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, certainly. But you don't hatch a snith out of a hurkle +egg. Where are your intermediate stages?"</p> + +<p>"Is it possible that we might have missed the intermediate stage?"</p> + +<p>"I said 'stages'. Plural. Pick any known animal—<i>any</i> one—and tell +me how many genetic changes would have to take place before you'd come +up with an animal anything like this one." Again he tapped the +bathygraph. "Take that eye, for instance. The lid goes down instead of +up, but you notice that there's a smaller lid at the bottom that +<i>does</i> go up, a little ways. The closest thing to an eye like that is +on the hugl, which has eyelids on top that lower a little. But the +hugl has eighteen segments; sixteen pairs of legs and two pairs of +feeding claws. Besides, it's only the size of your thumb-joint. What +kind of gene mutation would it take to change that into an animal like +the one in this picture?</p> + +<p>"And look at the size of the thing. If it weren't in that awkward +vertical position, if it were stretched out on the ground, it'd be a +long as a human. Look at the size of those legs!</p> + +<p>"Or, take another thing. In order to walk on those two legs, the +changes in skeletal and visceral structure would have to be +tremendous."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't we have missed the intermediate stages, then?" Dodeth asked +stubbornly. "We've missed the intermediates before, I dare say."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we have," Yerdeth admitted, "but if you boys in the +Ecological Corps have been on your toes for the past thousand years, +we haven't missed many. And it would take at least that long for +something like this to evolve from anything we know."</p> + +<p>"Even under direct polar bombardment?"</p> + +<p>"Even under direct polar bombardment. The radiation up here is strong +enough to sterilize a race within a very few generations. And what +would they eat? Not many plants survive there, you know.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't say it's flatly im<i>possi</i>ble, you understand. If a female +of some animal or other, carrying a freshly-fertilized zygote, and her +species happened to have all the necessary potential characteristics, +and a flood of ionizing radiation went through the zygote at exactly +the right time, and it managed to hit just the right genes in just the +right way ... well I'm sure you can see the odds against it are +tremendous. I wouldn't even want to guess at the order of magnitude of +the exponent. I'd have to put on a ten in order to give you the odds +against it."</p> + +<p>Dodeth didn't quite get that last statement, but he let it pass. "I +am going to pull somebody's legs off, one by one, come next work +period," he said coldly. "One ... by ... one."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>He didn't, though. Rather than accuse Wygor, it would be better if +Wygor were allowed to accuse himself. Dodeth merely wanted to wait for +the opportunity to present itself. And then—ah, <i>then</i> there would be +a roasting!</p> + +<p>The opportunity came in the latter part of the next work period. +Wygor, who had purportedly been up on the surface for another field +trip, scuttled excitedly into Dodeth's office, wildly waving some +bathygraph sheets.</p> + +<p>"Dodeth, sir! Look! I came down as soon as I saw it! I've got the +'graphs right here! Horrible!"</p> + +<p>Before Dodeth could say anything, Wygor had spread the sheets out +fan-wise on his business bench. Dodeth looked at them and experienced +a moment of horror himself before he realized that these were—these +<i>must</i> be—doctored bathygraphs. Even so, he gave an involuntary gasp.</p> + +<p>The first 'graphs had been taken from an aerial reconnaissance robot +winging in low over the treetops. The others were taken from a higher +altitude. They all showed the same carnage.</p> + +<p>An area of several thousand square feet—<i>tens</i> of thousands!—had +been cleared of trees! They had been ruthlessly cut down and stacked. +Bushes and vines had gone with them, and the grass had been crushed +and plowed up by the dragging of the great fallen trees. And there +were obvious signs that the work was still going on. In the close-ups, +he could see the bipedal beasts wielding cutting instruments.</p> + +<p>Dodeth forced himself to calmness and glared at the bathygraphs. Fry +it, they <i>had</i> to be fakes. A new species might appear only once in a +hundred years, but according to Yerdeth, this couldn't possibly be a +new species. What was Wygor's purpose in lying, though? Why should he +falsify data? And it must be he; he had said that he had seen the +beasts himself. Well, Dodeth would have to find out.</p> + +<p>"Tool users, eh?" he said, amazed at the calmness of his voice. Such +animals weren't unusual. The sniths used tools for digging and even +for fighting each other. And the hurkles dammed up small streams with +logs to increase their marshland. It wasn't immediately apparent what +these beasts were up to, but it was far too destructive to allow it to +go on.</p> + +<p>But, fry it all, it <i>couldn't</i> be going on!</p> + +<p>There were only two alternatives. Either Wygor was a liar or Yerdeth +didn't know what he was talking about. And there was only one way of +finding out which was which.</p> + +<p>"Ardan! Get my equipment ready! We're going on a field trip! Wygor, +you get the rest of the expedition ready; you and I are going up to +see what all this is about." He jabbed at the communicator button. +"Fry it! Why should this have to happen in my sector? Hello! Give me +an inter-city connection. I want to talk to Baythim Venns, +co-ordinator of Ecological Control, in Faisalla."</p> + +<p>He looked up at Wygor. "Scatter off, fry it! I want to—Oh, hello, +Baythim, sir. Dodeth. Have you had any reports on a new species—a +bipedal one? What? No, sir; I'm not kidding. One of my men has brought +in 'graphs of the thing. Frankly, I'm inclined to think it's a hoax of +some kind, but I'd like to ask you to check to see if it's been +reported in any of the other areas. We're located a little out of the +way here, and I thought perhaps some of the stations farther north or +south had seen it. Yes. That's right: two locomotive limbs, two +handling limbs. Big as a human, and they hold their bodies +perpendicular to the ground. Yes, sir, I know it sounds silly, and I'm +going out to check the story now, but you ought to see these +bathygraphs. If it's a hoax, there's an expert behind it. Very well, +sir; I'll wait."</p> + +<p>Dodeth scowled. Baythim had sounded as if he, Dodeth, had lost his +senses.</p> + +<p><i>Maybe I have</i>, he thought. <i>Maybe I'll start running around +mindlessly and get shot down by some patrol robot who thinks I'm a +snith.</i></p> + +<p>Maybe he should have investigated first and then called, when he was +sure, one way or another. Maybe he should have told Baythim he was +certain it was a hoax, instead of hedging his bets. Maybe a lot of +things, but it was too—</p> + +<p>"Hello? Yes, sir. None, eh? Yes, sir. Yes, sir; I'll give you a call +as soon as I've checked. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."</p> + +<p>Dodeth felt like an absolute fool. Individually and collectively, he +consigned to the frying pan Baythim, Wygor, Yerdeth, the new beast—if +it existed—and finally, himself.</p> + +<p>By the time he had finished his all-encompassing curse, his two dozen +pistoning legs had nearly brought him to the equipment room, where +Ardan and Wygor were waiting.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Four hours and more of steady traveling did very little to sweeten +Dodeth Pell's temper. The armored car was uncomfortable, and the +silence within it was even more uncomfortable. He did not at all feel +like making small talk with Wygor, and he had nothing as yet to say to +Ardan or the patrol robots who were rolling along with the armored +car.</p> + +<p>One thing he had to admit: Wygor certainly didn't act like a man who +was being carried to his own doom—which he certainly was if this was +hoax. Wygor would lose all position and be reduced to living off his +civil insurance. He would be pitied by all and respected by none.</p> + +<p>But he didn't look as though that worried him at all.</p> + +<p>Dodeth contented himself with looking at the scenery. The car was not +yet into the forest country; this was all rolling grassland. Off to +one side, a small herd of grazing grancos lifted their graceful heads +to watch the passage of the expedition, then lowered them again to +feed. A fanged zitibanth, disturbed in the act of stalking the +grancos, stiffened all his legs and froze for a moment, looking +balefully at the car and the robots, then went on about his business.</p> + +<p>When they came to the forest, the going became somewhat harder. +Centuries ago, those who had tried to build cities on the surface had +also built paved strips to make travel by car easier and smoother, and +Dodeth almost wished there were one leading to the target area.</p> + +<p>Fry it, he <i>hated</i> traveling! Especially in a lurching armored car. He +wished he were bored enough or tired enough to go to sleep.</p> + +<p>At last—at <i>long</i> last—Wygor ordered the car to stop. "We're within +two miles of the clearing, sir," he told Dodeth.</p> + +<p>"All right," Dodeth said morosely. "We'll go the rest of the way on +foot. I don't want to startle them at this stage of the game, so keep +it quiet and stay hidden. Tell the patrol robots to spread out, and +tell them I want all the movie shots we can get. I want all the +Keepers to see these things in action. Got that? Then let's get +moving."</p> + +<p>They crept forward through the forest, Dodeth and Ardan taking the +right, while Wygor and his own robot, Arsam, stayed a few yards away +to the left. They were all expert woodsmen—Dodeth and Wygor by +training and experience, and the robots by indoctrination.</p> + +<p>Even so, Dodeth never felt completely comfortable above ground, with +nothing over his head but the clouded sky.</p> + +<p>The team had purposely chosen to approach from a small rise, where +they could look down on the clearing without being seen. And when they +reached the incline that led up to the ridge, one of the armed patrol +robots who had been in the lead took a look over the ridge and then +scuttled back to Dodeth. "They're there, sir."</p> + +<p>"What are they doing?" Dodeth asked, scarcely daring to believe.</p> + +<p>"Feeding, I believe, sir. They aren't cutting down any trees now; +they're just sitting on one of the logs, feeding themselves with their +handling limbs."</p> + +<p>"How many are there?"</p> + +<p>"Twenty, sir."</p> + +<p>"I'll take a look." He scrambled up the ridge and peeked over.</p> + +<p>And there they were, less than a quarter of a mile away.</p> + +<p>Dazedly, Dodeth took a pair of field glasses from Ardan and focused +them on the group.</p> + +<p>Oh, they were real, all right. No doubt of that. None whatever. +Mechanically, he counted them. Twenty. Most of them were feeding, but +four of them seemed to be standing a little apart from the others, +watching the forest, acting as lookouts.</p> + +<p><i>Typical herd action</i>, Dodeth thought.</p> + +<p>He wished Yerdeth were here; he'd show that fool what good his +ten-to-the-billionth odds were.</p> + +<p>And yet, in another way, Dodeth had the feeling that his parabrother +was right. How could the life of the World have suddenly evolved such +creatures? For they looked even more impossible when seen in the +flesh.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Their locomotive limbs ended in lumpy protuberances that showed no +sign of toes, and they were covered all over with a dull gray hide, +except for the hands at the ends of their handling limbs and the necks +and the faces of their oddly-shaped heads, where the skin ranged in +color from a pinkish an to a definitive brown, depending on the +individual. There was no hair anywhere on their bodies except on the +top and back of their heads. No, wait—there were two long tufts above +each eye. They—</p> + +<p>"Do you see what they're <i>eating</i>?" Wygor's voice whispered.</p> + +<p>Dodeth hadn't. He'd been too busy looking at the things themselves. +But when he did notice, he made a noise like a throttled "<i>Geep!</i>"</p> + +<p><i>Hurkles!</i></p> + +<p>There were few enough of the animals—only a few small population was +needed to keep the Balance, but they were important. And the swamps +were drying up, and the quiggies were moving in on them, and <i>now</i>—</p> + +<p>Dodeth made a hasty count. Twenty! By the Universal Motivator, these +predators had eaten a hurkle apiece!</p> + +<p>Overhead, the Yellow Sun, a distant dot of intensely bright light, +shed its wan glow over the ghastly scene. Dodeth wished the Moon were +out; its much brighter light would have shown him more detail.</p> + +<p>But he could see well enough to count the gnawed skeletons of the +little, harmless hurkles. Even the Moon, which wouldn't bring morning +for another fifteen work periods yet, couldn't have made it any +plainer that these beasts were deadly dangerous to the Balance.</p> + +<p>"How often do they eat?" he asked in a strained voice.</p> + +<p>It was Wygor's robot, Arsam, who answered. "About three times every +work period. They sleep then. Their metabolic cycle seems to be timed +about the same as yours, sir."</p> + +<p>"<i>Gaw!</i>" said Dodeth. "Sixty hurkles per sleep period! Why, they'll +have the whole hurkle population eaten before long! Wygor! As soon as +we can get shots of all this, we're going back! There's not a moment +to lose! This is the most deadly dangerous thing that has ever +happened to the World!"</p> + +<p>"Fry me, yes," Wygor said in an awed voice. "Three hurkles in one +period."</p> + +<p>"Allow me to correct you, sir," said the patrol robot. "They do not +eat that many hurkles. They eat other things besides."</p> + +<p>"Like what, for instance?" Dodeth asked in a choked voice.</p> + +<p>The robot told him, and Dodeth groaned. "Omnivores! That's even worse! +Ardan, pass the word to the scouts to get their pictures and meet at +that tree down there behind us in ten minutes. We've got to get back +to the city!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Dodeth Pell laid his palms flat on the speaker's bench and looked +around at the assembled Keepers of the Balance, wise and prudence +thinkers, who had spent lifetimes in ecological service and had shown +their capabilities many times over.</p> + +<p>"And that's the situation, sirs," he said, after a significant pause. +"The moving and still bathygraphs, the data sheets, and the samplings +of the area all tell the same story. I do not feel that I, alone, can +make the decision. Emotionally, I must admit, I am tempted to destroy +all twenty of the monsters. Intellectually, I realize that we should +attempt to capture at least one family group—if we can discover what +constitutes a family group in this species. Unfortunately, we cannot +tell the sexes apart by visual inspection; the sex organs themselves +must be hidden in the folds of that gray hide. And this is evidently +not their breeding season, for we have seen no sign of sexual +activity.</p> + +<p>"We have very little time, sirs, it seems to me. The damage they have +already done will take years to repair, and the danger of upsetting +the Balance irreparably grows exponentially greater with every passing +work period.</p> + +<p>"Sirs, I ask your advice and your decision."</p> + +<p>There was a murmur of approval for his presentation as he came down +from the speakers bench. Then the Keepers went into their respective +committee meetings so discuss the various problems of detail that had +arisen out of the one great problem.</p> + +<p>Dodeth went into an anteroom and tried to relax and get a little +sleep—though he doubted he'd get any. His nerves were too much on +edge.</p> + +<p>Ardan woke him gently. "Your breakfast, sir."</p> + +<p>Dodeth blinked and jerked his head up. "Oh. Uhum. Ardan! Have the +Keepers reached any decision yet?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir; not yet. The data are still coming in."</p> + +<p>It was three more work periods before the Keepers called Dodeth Pell +before them again. Dodeth could almost read the decision on their +faces—there was both sadness and determination there.</p> + +<p>"It was an uncomfortable decision, Dodeth Pell," said the Eldest +Keeper without preliminary, "but a necessary one. We can find no place +in the Ecological Balance for this species. We have already ordered a +patrol column of two hundred fully-armed pesticide robots to destroy +the animals. Two are to be captured alive, if possible, but, if not, +the bodies will be brought to the biological laboratories for study. +Within a few hours, the species will be nearly or completely extinct.</p> + +<p>"By the way, you may tell your assistant, Wygor, that the animal will +go down in the files as <i>wygorex</i>. A unique distinction for him, in +many ways, but not, I fear, a happy one."</p> + +<p>Dodeth nodded silently. Now that the decision had been made, he felt +rather bad about it. Something in him rebelled at the thought of a +species becoming extinct, no matter how great the need. He wondered +if it would be possible for the biologists and the geneticists to +trace the evolution of the animal. He hoped so. At least they deserved +that much.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Dodeth Pell delayed returning to his own city; he wanted to wait until +the final results had been brought in before he returned to his +duties. The delay turned out to be a little longer than he +expected—much longer, in fact. The communicator in his temporary room +buzzed, and when he answered, Wygor's voice came to him, a rush of +excited words that didn't make any sense at all at first. And when it +did make sense he didn't believe it.</p> + +<p>"What?" he squealed. "<i>What?</i>"</p> + +<p>"I said," Wygor repeated, "that the report has come back from the +pesticide column! They've found no trace of any such animal as we've +described! They're nowhere to be found, in or near the clearing!"</p> + +<p>"I think," said Dodeth very calmly, "that I'll take a little trip over +to the Brightside and take up permanent residence there. It's going to +be pretty hot for me around here before long."</p> + +<p>And he cut the connection without waiting for Wygor's answer.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The armored car jounced across the grassland at high speed. Behind it, +two more cars followed, each taking care not to run exactly in the +tracks of the one ahead, so that there would be as little damage as +possible done to the grass.</p> + +<p>In the lead car, Dodeth Pell watched the forest loom nearer, wondering +what sort of madness he would find there this time. Beside him, the +Eldest Keeper dozed gently, in the way that only the very young or the +very old can doze. It was just as well; Dodeth didn't feel much like +talking.</p> + +<p>This time, as they approached the clearing, he didn't bother to tell +the car to stop two miles away. If the animals were gone, there was no +point in being cautious. All through the wooded area, he could see +occasional members of the pesticide robots. He told the car to stop at +the base of the little rise that he used before as a vantage point. +Then, without further preliminaries, he got out of the car and marched +up the slope to take a look at the clearing. Overhead, the burning +spark of the Yellow Sun cast its pale radiance over the landscape.</p> + +<p>At the ridge, he stopped suddenly and ducked his head. Then he grabbed +his field glasses and took a good look.</p> + +<p>The animals had built themselves a few crude-looking shelters out of +the logs, but he hardly noticed that.</p> + +<p>There were four of the animals, in plain sight, standing guard!</p> + +<p>The others were obviously inside the rude huts, asleep!</p> + +<p>Great galloping fungus blight! Was he out of his mind? What was going +on around here? Couldn't the robots <i>see</i> the beasts?</p> + +<p>"That's very odd," said the voice of the Eldest Keeper in puzzled +tones. "I thought the robots said they'd gone away. Lend me your field +glasses."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image_004.jpg" width="500" height="483" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p>As he handed the powerful glasses over to the Keeper, who had followed +him up the hill, Dodeth said: "I'm glad you can see them. I thought +maybe my brain had been short-circuited."</p> + +<p>"I can see them," said the Eldest Keeper, peering through the glasses. +Then he handed them back to Dodeth. "Let's get back down to the car. I +want to find out what's going on around here."</p> + +<p>At the car, the Eldest Keeper just scowled for a moment, looking very +worried. By this time, the other two cars had pulled up nearby, +discharging their cargo of two more Keepers apiece. While the Eldest +Keeper talked in low tones with his colleagues, Dodeth stalked over to +one of the pesticide robots who was prowling nearby.</p> + +<p>"Found anything useful?" he asked sarcastically, knowing that sarcasm +was useless on a robot.</p> + +<p>"I'm not looking for anything useful, sir. I'm looking for the animals +we are supposed to destroy."</p> + +<p>"You come over and tell the Eldest Keeper that," Dodeth said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," the robot agreed promptly, rolling along beside Dodeth as +he returned to where the Keepers were waiting.</p> + +<p>"What's going on here?" the Eldest demanded curtly of the robot. "Why +haven't you destroyed the animals?"</p> + +<p>"Because we can't find them, sir."</p> + +<p>"What's your name?" the Eldest snapped.</p> + +<p>"Arike, sir."</p> + +<p>"All right, Arike," said the Eldest somewhat angrily. "Stand by for +orders. You'll repeat them to the other robots, understand?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said the robot.</p> + +<p>"All right, then," said the Eldest. "First, you take a run up that +hill and look into that clearing. You'll see those creatures in there +all right."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. I've seen those creatures in there."</p> + +<p>The Eldest Keeper exploded. "Then get in there and obey your orders! +Don't you realize that their very existence threatens the life of all +of us? They must be eliminated before our whole culture is destroyed! +Do you understand? Obey!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said the robot. His voice sounded odd, but he spun around +and went to pass the word on to the other robots. Within minutes, more +and more of the pesticide robots were swarming towards and into the +clearing. They could hear rumbling noises from the clearing—low +grunts that were evidently made by animals who were trapped by the +encircling robots.</p> + +<p>And then there was a vast silence.</p> + +<p>Dodeth and the Keepers waited.</p> + +<p>Not a shot was fired.</p> + +<p>It was as though a great, sound-proof blanket had been flung over the +whole area.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"What in the Unknown Name of the Universal Motivator is going on +around here?" said Dodeth in a hushed tone. He wondered how many times +he had asked himself that.</p> + +<p>"We may as well take a look," said the Eldest Keeper.</p> + +<p>Two hundred pesticide robots were ranged around the perimeter of the +clearing, their weapons facing inward. Not a one of them moved.</p> + +<p>Inside the circle of machines, the twenty wygorex stood motionless, +watching the ring of robots. Now and then, one of them gave a deep, +coughing rumble, but otherwise they made no noise.</p> + +<p>Dodeth Pell could stand it no longer. "Robots!" He shouted as loudly +as he could, his voice shrill with urgency. "I order you to fire!"</p> + +<p>It was as though he hadn't said a word. Both robots and wygorex +ignored him completely.</p> + +<p>Dodeth turned and yelled to one one of the patrol robots that was +standing nearby. "You! What's your name?"</p> + +<p>"Arvam, sir."</p> + +<p>"Arvam, can you tell what it is those things have done to the robots?"</p> + +<p>"They haven't done anything, sir."</p> + +<p>"Then why don't the robots fire as they've been told?" Dodeth didn't +want to admit it, even to himself, but he was badly frightened. He had +never heard of a robot behaving this way before.</p> + +<p>"They can't, sir."</p> + +<p>"They <i>can't</i>? Don't they realize that if those things aren't killed, +we may all die?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't know that," said the patrol robot. "If we do not kill them, +then you may be killed, and you have ordered us to kill them, but if +we obey your orders, then we will kill them, and that will mean that +you won't be killed, but they will, so we can't do that, but if we +don't then you <i>will</i> be killed, and we must obey, and that means we +must, but we can't, but if we don't we will, and we can't so we must +but we can't but if we don't you will so we must but we can't but +we—" He kept repeating it over and over again, on and on and on.</p> + +<p>"Stop that!" snapped Dodeth.</p> + +<p>But the robot didn't even seem to hear.</p> + +<p>Dodeth was really frightened now. He looked back at the five keepers +and scuttled toward them.</p> + +<p>"What's wrong with the robots?" he asked shrilly. "They've never +failed us before!"</p> + +<p>The Elder Keeper looked at him. "What makes you think they've failed +us now?" he asked softly.</p> + +<p>Dodeth gaped speechlessly. The Eldest didn't seem to be making any +more sense than the patrol robot had.</p> + +<p>"No," the Keeper went on, "they haven't failed us. They have served us +well. They have pointed out to us something which we have failed to +see, and, in doing so, have saved us from making a catastrophic +error."</p> + +<p>"I don't understand," said Dodeth.</p> + +<p>"I'll explain," the Elder Keeper said, "but first go over to that +patrol robot and tell him quietly that the situation has changed. +Tell him that we are no longer in any danger from the wygorex. Then +bring him over here."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Dodeth did as he was told, without understanding at all.</p> + +<p>"I still don't understand, sir," he said bewilderedly.</p> + +<p>"Dodeth, what would happen if I told Arvam, here, to fire on you?"</p> + +<p>"Why ... why, he'd <i>refuse</i>."</p> + +<p>"Why should he?"</p> + +<p>"Because I'm <i>human</i>! That's the most basic robot command."</p> + +<p>"I don't know," the Eldest said, eying Dodeth shrewdly. "You might not +be a human. You might be a snith. You <i>look</i> like a snith."</p> + +<p>Dodeth swallowed the insult, wondering what the Eldest meant.</p> + +<p>"Arvam," the Eldest Keeper said to the robot, "doesn't he look like a +snith to you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," Arvam agreed.</p> + +<p>Dodeth swallowed that one, too.</p> + +<p>"Then how do you know he <i>isn't</i> a snith, Arvam?"</p> + +<p>"Because he behaves like a human, sir. A snith does not behave like a +human."</p> + +<p>"And if something does behave like a human, what then?"</p> + +<p>"Anything that behaves like a human is human, sir."</p> + +<p>Dodeth suddenly felt as though his eyes had suddenly focused after +being unfocused for a long time. He gestured toward the clearing. "You +mean those ... those <i>things</i> ... are ... <i>human</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Yes sir," said Arvam solidly.</p> + +<p>"But they don't even <i>talk</i>!"</p> + +<p>"Pardon me for correcting you sir, but they do. I cannot understand +their speech, but the pattern is clearly recognizable as speech. Most +of their conversation is carried on in tones of subsonic frequency, so +your ears cannot hear it. Apparently, your voices are supersonic to +them."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll be fried," said Dodeth. He looked at the Elder Keeper. +"That's why the robots reported they couldn't find any <i>animal</i> of +that description in the vicinity."</p> + +<p>"Certainly. There weren't any."</p> + +<p>"And we were so fooled by their monstrous appearance that we didn't +pay any attention to their actions," said Dodeth.</p> + +<p>"Exactly."</p> + +<p>"But this makes the puzzle even <i>worse</i>," said Dodeth. "How could such +a creature evolve?"</p> + +<p>"Look!" interrupted one of the other Keepers, pointing. "Up there in +the sky!"</p> + +<p>All eyes turned toward the direction the finger pointed.</p> + +<p>It was a silvery speck in the sky that moved and became larger.</p> + +<p>"I don't think they're from our World at all," said the Eldest Keeper. +He turned to the patrol robot. "Arvam, go down and tell the pesticide +robots that there is no danger to us. They're still confused, and I +have a feeling that the humans in that ship up there might not like it +if we are caught pointing guns at their friends."</p> + +<p>As Arvam rolled off, Dodeth said "Another World?"</p> + +<p>"Why not?" asked the Eldest. "The Moon, after all, is another World, +smaller than ours, to be sure, and airless, but still another World. +We haven't thought too much about other Worlds because we have our own +World to take care of. But there was a time, back in the days of the +builders of the surface cities, when our people dreamed such things. +But our Moon was the only one close enough, and there was no point in +going to a place which is even more hellish than our Brightside.</p> + +<p>"But suppose the Yellow Sun also has a planet—or maybe even one of +the more distant suns, which are hardly more than glimmers of light. +They came, and they landed a few of their party to make a small +clearing. Then the ship went somewhere else—to the dark side of our +Moon, maybe, I don't know. But they were within calling range, for the +ship was called as soon as trouble appeared.</p> + +<p>"We don't know anything about them yet, but we will. And we've got to +show them that we, too, are human. We have a job ahead of us—a job of +communication.</p> + +<p>"But we also have a great future if we handle things right."</p> + +<p>Dodeth watched the ship, now grown to a silvery globe of tremendous +size, drift slowly downward toward the clearing. He felt an inward +glow of intense anticipation, and he fidgeted impatiently as he waited +to see what would happen next.</p> + +<p>He rippled a stomp.</p> + + +<h3>THE END</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Asses of Balaam, by Gordon Randall Garrett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ASSES OF BALAAM *** + +***** This file should be named 30583-h.htm or 30583-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/5/8/30583/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://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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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: The Asses of Balaam + +Author: Gordon Randall Garrett + +Illustrator: Schoenherr + +Release Date: December 2, 2009 [EBook #30583] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ASSES OF BALAAM *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact Fiction October 1961. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright + on this publication was renewed. + + + THE + + ASSES + + OF + + BALAAM + + + + By DAVID GORDON + + + Illustrated by Schoenherr + + * * * * * + + + + + _The remarkable characteristic of Balaam's ass was that it + was more perceptive than its master. Sometimes a child is + more perceptive--because more straightforward and + logical--than an adult...._ + + [Illustration] + + _It is written in the Book of Numbers that Balaam, a wise + man of the Moabites, having been ordered by the King of Moab + to put a curse upon the invading Israelites, mounted himself + upon an ass and rode forth toward the camp of the Children + of Israel. On the road, he met an angel with drawn sword, + barring the way. Balaam, not seeing or recognizing the + angel, kept urging his ass forward, but the ass recognized + the angel and turned aside. Balaam smote the beast and + forced it to return to the path, and again the angel blocked + the way with drawn sword. And again the ass turned aside, + despite the beating from Balaam, who, in his blindness, was + unable to see the angel._ + + _When the ass stopped for the third time and lay down, + refusing to go further, Balaam waxed exceeding wrath and + smote again the animal with a stick._ + + _Then the ass spoke and said: "Why dost thou beat me? I have + always obeyed thee and never have I failed thee. Have I ever + been known to fail thee?_" + + _And Balaam answered: "No." And at that moment his eyes were + opened and he saw the angel before him._ + + --STUDIES IN SCRIPTURE + + by Ceggawynn of Eboricum + + +With the careful precision of controlled anger, Dodeth +Pell rippled a stomp along his right side. +_Clop_clopclop_clop_-clopclop-_clop_clop-clop_clop_clopclop.... +Each of his twelve right feet came down in turn while he glared across the +business bench at Wygor Bedis. He started the ripple again, while he +waited for Wygor's answer. The ripple was a good deal more effective than +just tapping one's fingers, and equally as satisfying. + +Wygor Bedis twitched his mouth and allowed his eyelids to slide up +over his eyeballs in a slow blink before answering. Dodeth had simply +asked, "Why wasn't this reported to me before?" But Wygor couldn't +find the answer as simply as that. Not that he didn't have a good +answer; it was just that he wanted to couch it in exactly the right +terms. Dodeth had a way with raking sarcasm that made a person tend +to cringe. + +Dodeth was perfectly well aware of that. He hadn't been in the +Executive Office of Predator Council all these years for nothing; he +knew how to handle people--when to praise them, when to flatter them, +when to rebuke them, and when to drag them unmercifully over the +shell-bed. + +He waited, his right legs marching out their steady rhythm. + +"Well," said Wygor at last, "it was just that I couldn't see any point +in bothering you with it at that point. I mean, _one_ specimen--" + +"Of an entirely new species!" snapped Dodeth in a sudden interruption. +His legs stopped their rhythmic tramp. His voice rose from its usual +eight-thousand-cycle rumble to a shrill squeak. "Fry it, Wygor, if you +weren't such a good field man, I'd have sacked you long ago! Your +trouble is that you have a penchant for bringing me problems that you +ought to be able to solve by yourself and then flipping right over on +your back and holding off on some information that ought to be brought +to my attention immediately!" + +There wasn't much Wygor could say to that, so he didn't try. He simply +waited for the raking to come, and, sure enough, it came. + +Dodeth's voice lowered itself to a soft purr. "The next time you have +to do anything as complicated as setting a snith-trap, you just hump +right down here and ask me, and I'll tell you all about it. On the +other hand, if the lower levels all suddenly become infested with +shelks at the same time, why, you just take care of that little detail +yourself, eh? The only other alternative is to learn to think." + +Wygor winced a trifle and kept his mouth shut. + +Having delivered himself of his jet of acid, Dodeth Pell looked down +at the data booklet that Wygor had handed him. "Fortunately," he said, +"there doesn't seem to be much to worry about. Only the Universal +Motivator knows how this thing could have spawned, but it doesn't +appear to be very efficient." + +"No, sir, it doesn't," said Wygor, taking heart from his superior's +mild tone. "The eating orifice is oddly placed, and the teeth are +obviously for grinding purposes." + +"I was thinking more of the method of locomotion," Dodeth said. "I +believe this is a record, although I'll have to look in the files to +make sure. I think that six locomotive limbs is the least I've ever +heard of on an animal that size." + +"I've checked the files," said Wygor. "There was a four-limbed +leaf-eater recorded seven hundred years ago--four locomotive limbs, +that is, and two grasping. But it was only as big as your hand." + +Dodeth looked through the three pages of the booklet. There wasn't +much there, really, but he knew Wygor well enough to know that all the +data he had thus far was there. The only thing that rankled was that +Wygor had delayed for three work periods before reporting the +intrusion of the new beast, and now five of them had been spotted. + +He looked at the page which showed the three bathygraphs that had been +taken of the new animals from a distance. There was something odd +about them, and Dodeth couldn't, for the hide of him, figure out what +it was. It aroused an odd fear in him, and made him want to burrow +deeper into the ground. + +"I can't see what keeps 'em from falling over," he said at last. "Are +they as slow-moving as they look?" + +"They don't move very fast," Wygor admitted, "but we haven't seen any +of them startled yet. I don't see how they could run very fast, +though. It must take every bit of awareness they have to stay balanced +on two legs." + +Dodeth sighed whistlingly and pushed the data booklet back across the +business bench to Wygor. "All right; I'll file the preliminary +spotting report. Now get out there and get me some pertinent data on +this queer beast. Scramble off." + +"Right away, sir." + +"And ... Wygor--" + +"Yes, sir?" + +"It's apparent that we have a totally new species here. It will be +called a _wygorex_, of course, but it would be better if we waited +until we could make a full report to the Keepers. So don't let any of +this out--especially to the other Septs." + +"Certainly not, sir; not a whistle. Anything else?" + +"Just keep me posted, that's all. Scramble off." + +After Wygor had obediently scrambled off, Dodeth relaxed all his knees +and sank to his belly in thought. + +His job was not an easy one. He would like to have his office get full +credit for discovering a new species, just as Wygor had--understandably +enough--wanted to get his share of the credit. On the other hand, one had +to be careful that holding back information did not constitute any danger +to the Balance. Above all, the Balance must be preserved. Even the snith +had its place in the Ecological Balance of the World--although one didn't +like to think about sniths as being particularly useful. + +After all, every animal, every planet had its place in the scheme; +each contributed its little bit to maintaining the Balance. Each had +its niche in the ecological architecture, as Dodeth liked to think of +it. The trouble was that the Balance was a shifting, swinging, +ever-changing thing. Living tissues carried the genes of heredity in +them, and living tissues are notoriously plastic under the influence +of the proper radiation or particle bombardment. And animals _would_ +cross the poles. + +The World had been excellently designed by the Universal Motivator for +the development and evolution of life. Again, the concept of the +Balance showed in His mighty works. Suppose, for instance, that the +World rotated more rapidly about its axis, thereby exposing the whole +surface periodically to the deadly radiation of the Blue Sun, instead +of having a rotation period that, combined with the eccentricity of +the World's orbit, gave it just enough libration to expose only +sixty-three per cent to the rays, leaving the remaining thirty-seven +per cent in twilight or darkness. Or suppose the orbit were so nearly +circular that there were no perceptible libration at all; one side +would burn eternally, and the other side would freeze, since there +would be no seasonal winds blowing first east, then west, bringing the +warmth of the Blue Sun from the other side. + +Or, again, suppose there were no Moon and no Yellow Sun to give light +to the dark side. Who could live in an everlasting night? + +Or suppose that the magnetic field of the World were too weak to focus +the majority of the Blue Sun's output of electrons and ions on the +poles. How could life have evolved at all? + +Balance. And the Ultimate Universal Motivator had put part of the +responsibility into the hands of His only intelligent species. And a +part of that part had been put into the hands of Dodeth Pell as the +head of Predator Control. + +Fry it! Something was niggling at the back of Dodeth's mind, and no +amount of philosophizing would shake it. He reached into the drawer of +the business bench and pulled out the duplicate of Wygor's data +booklet. He flipped it open and looked at the bathygraphs again. + + * * * * * + +There was no single thing about them that he could pinpoint, but the +beasts just didn't _look_ right. Dodeth Pell had seen many monstrous +animals in his life, but none like this. + +Most people disliked and were disgusted by a snith because of the +uncanny resemblance the stupid beast had to the appearance of Dodeth's +own race. There could be no question of the genetic linkage between +the two species, but, in spite of the physical similarities, their +actions were controlled almost entirely by instinct instead of reason. +They were like some sort of idiot parody of intelligent beings. + +But it was their similarity which made them loathsome. Why should +Dodeth Pell feel a like emotion when he saw the bathygraphs of the +two-legged thing? Certainly there was no similarity. + +Wait a minute! + +He looked carefully at the three-dimensional pictures again. + +Fry it! He couldn't be sure-- + +After all, he wasn't a geneticist. Checking the files wouldn't be +enough; he wouldn't know how to ask the proper cross-filing questions. + +He lolled his tongue out and absently rasped at a slight itch on the +back of his hand while he thought. + +If his hunch were correct, then it was time to call in outside help +now, instead of waiting for more information. Still, he needn't +necessarily call in official expert help just yet. If he could just +get a lead--enough to verify or disprove the possibility of his hunch +being correct--that would be enough for a day or two, until Wygor got +more data. + +There was always Yerdeth, an older parabrother on his prime-father's +side. Yerdeth had studied genetics--theoretical, not applied--with the +thought of going into Control, and kept on dabbling in it even after +he had discovered that his talents lay in the robot design field. + +"Ardan!" he said sharply. + +At the other end of the office, the robot assistant ceased his work +for a moment. "Yes, sir?" + +"Come here a minute; I want you to look at something." + +"Yes, sir." + +The robot's segmented body was built very much like Dodeth's own, +except that instead of the twelve pairs of legs that supported +Dodeth's body, the robot was equipped with wheels, each suspended +separately and equipped with its individual power source. Ardan rolled +sedately across the floor, his metallic body gleaming in the light +from the low ceiling. He came to a halt in front of Dodeth's business +bench. + +Dodeth handed Ardan the thin data booklet. "Scan through that." + +Ardan went through it rapidly, his eyes carefully scanning each page, +his brain recording everything permanently. After a few seconds, he +looked back up at Dodeth. "A new species." + +"Exactly. Did you notice anything odd about their appearance?" + +"Naturally," said Ardan. "Since their like has never been seen before, +it is axiomatic that they would appear odd." + +_Fry it!_ Dodeth thought. He should have known better than to ask a +question like that of Ardan. To ask it to determine what might be +called second-order strangeness in a pattern that was strange in the +first place was asking too much of a robot. + +"Very well, then. Make an appointment for this evening with Yerdeth +Pell. I would like to see him at his home if it is convenient." + +"Yes, sir," said the robot. + + * * * * * + +Evening was four work-periods away, and even after Yerdeth had granted +the appointment, Dodeth found himself fidgeting in anticipation. + +Twice, during the following work periods, Wygor came in with more +information. He had gone above ground with a group of protection +robots, finally, to take a look at the new animals himself, but he +hadn't yet managed to obtain enough data to make a definitive report +on the strange beasts. + +But the lack of data was, in itself, significant. + +Dodeth usually liked to walk through the broad tunnels of the main +thoroughfares, since he didn't particularly care to ride robot-back +for so short a distance, but this time he was in such a hurry to see +Yerdeth that he decided to let Ardan take him. + +He climbed aboard, clamped his legs to the robot's sides, and said: +"To Yerdeth Pell's." + +The robot said "Yes, sir," and rolled out to the side tunnel that led +toward one of the main robot tunnels. When they finally came to a +tunnel labeled _Robots and Passengers Only_, Ardan rolled into it and +revved his wheels up to high speed, shooting down the tunnelway at a +much higher velocity than Dodeth could possibly have run. + +The tunnelway was crowded with passenger-carrying robots, and with +robots alone, carrying out orders from their masters. But there was no +danger; no robot could harm any of Dodeth's race, nor could any robot +stand idly by while someone was harmed. Even in the most crowded of +conditions, every robot in the area had one thing foremost in his +mind: the safety of every human within sight or hearing. + +Dodeth ignored the traffic altogether. He had other things to think +about, and he knew--without even bothering to consider it--that Ardan +could be relied upon to take care of everything. Even if it cost him +his own pseudolife, Ardan would do everything in his power to preserve +the safety and health of his passenger. Once in a while, in unusual +circumstances, a robot would even disobey orders to save a life, for +obedience was strictly secondary to the sanctity of human life, just +as the robot's desire to preserve his own pseudoliving existence was +outranked by the desire to obey. + +Dodeth thought about his job, but he carefully kept his mind off the +new beasts. He knew that fussing in his mind over them wouldn't do him +any good until he had more to work with--things which only his +parabrother, Yerdeth, could supply him. Besides, there was the +problem of what to do about the hurkle breeding sites, which were +being encroached upon by the quiggies. Some of the swamps on the +surface, especially those that approached the Hot Belts, were being +dried out and filled with dust, which decreased the area where the +hurkle could lay its eggs, but increased the nesting sites for +quiggies. + +That, of course, was a yearly cycle, in general. As the Blue Sun moved +from one side to the other, and the winds shifted accordingly, the +swamps near the Twilight Border would dry out or fill up accordingly. +But this year the eastern swamps weren't filling up as they should, +and some precautionary measures would have to be taken to prevent too +great a shift in the hurkle-quiggie balance. + +Then there was the compensating migratory shift of the Hotland +beasts--those which lived in the areas where the slanting rays of the +Blue Sun could actually touch them, and which could not stand the, to +them, terrible cold of the Darklands. Instead, they moved back and +forth with the Blue Sun and remained in their own area--a hot, dry, +fiery-bright hinterland occupied only by gnurrs, gpoles, and other +horrendous beasts. + +Beyond those areas, according to the robot patrols which had +reconnoitered there, nothing lived. Nothing could. No protoplasmic +being could exist under the direct rays of the Blue Sun. Even the +metal-and-translite bodies of a robot wouldn't long protect the +sensitive mechanisms within from the furnace heat of the huge star. + +Each species had its niche in the World. Some, like the hurkle, lived +in swamp water. Others lived in lakes and streams. Still others flew +in the skies or roamed the surface or climbed the great trees. Some, +like Dodeth's own people, lived beneath the surface. + +The one thing an intelligent species had to be most careful about was +not to disturb the balance with their abilities, but to work to +preserve it. In the past, there had been those who had built cities on +the surface, but the cities had removed the natural growth from large +areas, which, in turn, had forced the city people to import their food +from outside the cities. And that had meant an enforced increase in +the cultivation of the remaining soil, which destroyed the habitats of +other animals, besides depleting the soil itself. The only sensible +way was to live _under_ the farmlands, so that no man was ever more +than a few hundred feet from the food supply. The Universal Motivator +had chosen that their species should evolve in burrows beneath the +surface, and if that was the niche chosen for Dodeth's people, then +that was obviously where they should remain to keep the Balance. + +Of course, the snith, too, was an underground animal, though the +tunnels were unlined. The snith's tunnels ran between and around the +armored tunnels of Dodeth's people, so that each city surrounded the +other without contact--if the burrows of the snith could properly be +called a city. + +"Yerdeth Pell's residence," said Ardan. + +"Ah, yes." Dodeth, his thoughts interrupted, slid off the back of +the robot and flexed his legs. "Wait here, Ardan. I'll be back in an +hour or so." Then he scrambled over to the door which led to Yerdeth's +apartment. + +[Illustration] + + * * * * * + +Twenty minutes later, Yerdeth Pell looked up from the data book +facsimiles and scanned Dodeth's face with appraising eyes. + +"Very cute," he said at last, with a slight chuckle. "Now, what I want +to know is: is someone playing a joke on you, or are you playing a +joke on me?" + +Dodeth's eyelids slid upwards in a fast blink of surprise. "What do +you mean?" + +"Why, these bathygraphs." Yerdeth rapped the bathygraphs with a +wrinkled, horny hand. He was a good deal older than Dodeth, and his +voice had a tendency to rasp a little when the frequency went above +twenty thousand cycles. "They're very good, of course. _Very_ good. +The models have very fine detail to them. The eyes, especially are +good; they look as if they really _ought_ to be built that way." He +smiled and looked up at Dodeth. + +Dodeth resisted an urge to ripple a stomp. "Well?" he said +impatiently. + +"Well, they can't be real, you know," Yerdeth replied mildly. + +"Why not?" + +"Oh, come, now, Dodeth. What did it evolve from? An animal doesn't +just spring out of nowhere, you know." + +"New species are discovered occasionally," Dodeth said. "And there are +plenty of mutants and just plain freaks." + +"Certainly, certainly. But you don't hatch a snith out of a hurkle +egg. Where are your intermediate stages?" + +"Is it possible that we might have missed the intermediate stage?" + +"I said 'stages'. Plural. Pick any known animal--_any_ one--and tell +me how many genetic changes would have to take place before you'd come +up with an animal anything like this one." Again he tapped the +bathygraph. "Take that eye, for instance. The lid goes down instead of +up, but you notice that there's a smaller lid at the bottom that +_does_ go up, a little ways. The closest thing to an eye like that is +on the hugl, which has eyelids on top that lower a little. But the +hugl has eighteen segments; sixteen pairs of legs and two pairs of +feeding claws. Besides, it's only the size of your thumb-joint. What +kind of gene mutation would it take to change that into an animal like +the one in this picture? + +"And look at the size of the thing. If it weren't in that awkward +vertical position, if it were stretched out on the ground, it'd be a +long as a human. Look at the size of those legs! + +"Or, take another thing. In order to walk on those two legs, the +changes in skeletal and visceral structure would have to be +tremendous." + +"Couldn't we have missed the intermediate stages, then?" Dodeth asked +stubbornly. "We've missed the intermediates before, I dare say." + +"Perhaps we have," Yerdeth admitted, "but if you boys in the +Ecological Corps have been on your toes for the past thousand years, +we haven't missed many. And it would take at least that long for +something like this to evolve from anything we know." + +"Even under direct polar bombardment?" + +"Even under direct polar bombardment. The radiation up here is strong +enough to sterilize a race within a very few generations. And what +would they eat? Not many plants survive there, you know. + +"Oh, I don't say it's flatly im_possi_ble, you understand. If a female +of some animal or other, carrying a freshly-fertilized zygote, and her +species happened to have all the necessary potential characteristics, +and a flood of ionizing radiation went through the zygote at exactly +the right time, and it managed to hit just the right genes in just the +right way ... well I'm sure you can see the odds against it are +tremendous. I wouldn't even want to guess at the order of magnitude of +the exponent. I'd have to put on a ten in order to give you the odds +against it." + +Dodeth didn't quite get that last statement, but he let it pass. "I +am going to pull somebody's legs off, one by one, come next work +period," he said coldly. "One ... by ... one." + + * * * * * + +He didn't, though. Rather than accuse Wygor, it would be better if +Wygor were allowed to accuse himself. Dodeth merely wanted to wait for +the opportunity to present itself. And then--ah, _then_ there would be +a roasting! + +The opportunity came in the latter part of the next work period. +Wygor, who had purportedly been up on the surface for another field +trip, scuttled excitedly into Dodeth's office, wildly waving some +bathygraph sheets. + +"Dodeth, sir! Look! I came down as soon as I saw it! I've got the +'graphs right here! Horrible!" + +Before Dodeth could say anything, Wygor had spread the sheets out +fan-wise on his business bench. Dodeth looked at them and experienced +a moment of horror himself before he realized that these were--these +_must_ be--doctored bathygraphs. Even so, he gave an involuntary gasp. + +The first 'graphs had been taken from an aerial reconnaissance robot +winging in low over the treetops. The others were taken from a higher +altitude. They all showed the same carnage. + +An area of several thousand square feet--_tens_ of thousands!--had +been cleared of trees! They had been ruthlessly cut down and stacked. +Bushes and vines had gone with them, and the grass had been crushed +and plowed up by the dragging of the great fallen trees. And there +were obvious signs that the work was still going on. In the close-ups, +he could see the bipedal beasts wielding cutting instruments. + +Dodeth forced himself to calmness and glared at the bathygraphs. Fry +it, they _had_ to be fakes. A new species might appear only once in a +hundred years, but according to Yerdeth, this couldn't possibly be a +new species. What was Wygor's purpose in lying, though? Why should he +falsify data? And it must be he; he had said that he had seen the +beasts himself. Well, Dodeth would have to find out. + +"Tool users, eh?" he said, amazed at the calmness of his voice. Such +animals weren't unusual. The sniths used tools for digging and even +for fighting each other. And the hurkles dammed up small streams with +logs to increase their marshland. It wasn't immediately apparent what +these beasts were up to, but it was far too destructive to allow it to +go on. + +But, fry it all, it _couldn't_ be going on! + +There were only two alternatives. Either Wygor was a liar or Yerdeth +didn't know what he was talking about. And there was only one way of +finding out which was which. + +"Ardan! Get my equipment ready! We're going on a field trip! Wygor, +you get the rest of the expedition ready; you and I are going up to +see what all this is about." He jabbed at the communicator button. +"Fry it! Why should this have to happen in my sector? Hello! Give me +an inter-city connection. I want to talk to Baythim Venns, +co-ordinator of Ecological Control, in Faisalla." + +He looked up at Wygor. "Scatter off, fry it! I want to--Oh, hello, +Baythim, sir. Dodeth. Have you had any reports on a new species--a +bipedal one? What? No, sir; I'm not kidding. One of my men has brought +in 'graphs of the thing. Frankly, I'm inclined to think it's a hoax of +some kind, but I'd like to ask you to check to see if it's been +reported in any of the other areas. We're located a little out of the +way here, and I thought perhaps some of the stations farther north or +south had seen it. Yes. That's right: two locomotive limbs, two +handling limbs. Big as a human, and they hold their bodies +perpendicular to the ground. Yes, sir, I know it sounds silly, and I'm +going out to check the story now, but you ought to see these +bathygraphs. If it's a hoax, there's an expert behind it. Very well, +sir; I'll wait." + +Dodeth scowled. Baythim had sounded as if he, Dodeth, had lost his +senses. + +_Maybe I have_, he thought. _Maybe I'll start running around +mindlessly and get shot down by some patrol robot who thinks I'm a +snith._ + +Maybe he should have investigated first and then called, when he was +sure, one way or another. Maybe he should have told Baythim he was +certain it was a hoax, instead of hedging his bets. Maybe a lot of +things, but it was too-- + +"Hello? Yes, sir. None, eh? Yes, sir. Yes, sir; I'll give you a call +as soon as I've checked. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." + +Dodeth felt like an absolute fool. Individually and collectively, he +consigned to the frying pan Baythim, Wygor, Yerdeth, the new beast--if +it existed--and finally, himself. + +By the time he had finished his all-encompassing curse, his two dozen +pistoning legs had nearly brought him to the equipment room, where +Ardan and Wygor were waiting. + + * * * * * + +Four hours and more of steady traveling did very little to sweeten +Dodeth Pell's temper. The armored car was uncomfortable, and the +silence within it was even more uncomfortable. He did not at all feel +like making small talk with Wygor, and he had nothing as yet to say to +Ardan or the patrol robots who were rolling along with the armored +car. + +One thing he had to admit: Wygor certainly didn't act like a man who +was being carried to his own doom--which he certainly was if this was +hoax. Wygor would lose all position and be reduced to living off his +civil insurance. He would be pitied by all and respected by none. + +But he didn't look as though that worried him at all. + +Dodeth contented himself with looking at the scenery. The car was not +yet into the forest country; this was all rolling grassland. Off to +one side, a small herd of grazing grancos lifted their graceful heads +to watch the passage of the expedition, then lowered them again to +feed. A fanged zitibanth, disturbed in the act of stalking the +grancos, stiffened all his legs and froze for a moment, looking +balefully at the car and the robots, then went on about his business. + +When they came to the forest, the going became somewhat harder. +Centuries ago, those who had tried to build cities on the surface had +also built paved strips to make travel by car easier and smoother, and +Dodeth almost wished there were one leading to the target area. + +Fry it, he _hated_ traveling! Especially in a lurching armored car. He +wished he were bored enough or tired enough to go to sleep. + +At last--at _long_ last--Wygor ordered the car to stop. "We're within +two miles of the clearing, sir," he told Dodeth. + +"All right," Dodeth said morosely. "We'll go the rest of the way on +foot. I don't want to startle them at this stage of the game, so keep +it quiet and stay hidden. Tell the patrol robots to spread out, and +tell them I want all the movie shots we can get. I want all the +Keepers to see these things in action. Got that? Then let's get +moving." + +They crept forward through the forest, Dodeth and Ardan taking the +right, while Wygor and his own robot, Arsam, stayed a few yards away +to the left. They were all expert woodsmen--Dodeth and Wygor by +training and experience, and the robots by indoctrination. + +Even so, Dodeth never felt completely comfortable above ground, with +nothing over his head but the clouded sky. + +The team had purposely chosen to approach from a small rise, where +they could look down on the clearing without being seen. And when they +reached the incline that led up to the ridge, one of the armed patrol +robots who had been in the lead took a look over the ridge and then +scuttled back to Dodeth. "They're there, sir." + +"What are they doing?" Dodeth asked, scarcely daring to believe. + +"Feeding, I believe, sir. They aren't cutting down any trees now; +they're just sitting on one of the logs, feeding themselves with their +handling limbs." + +"How many are there?" + +"Twenty, sir." + +"I'll take a look." He scrambled up the ridge and peeked over. + +And there they were, less than a quarter of a mile away. + +Dazedly, Dodeth took a pair of field glasses from Ardan and focused +them on the group. + +Oh, they were real, all right. No doubt of that. None whatever. +Mechanically, he counted them. Twenty. Most of them were feeding, but +four of them seemed to be standing a little apart from the others, +watching the forest, acting as lookouts. + +_Typical herd action_, Dodeth thought. + +He wished Yerdeth were here; he'd show that fool what good his +ten-to-the-billionth odds were. + +And yet, in another way, Dodeth had the feeling that his parabrother +was right. How could the life of the World have suddenly evolved such +creatures? For they looked even more impossible when seen in the +flesh. + + * * * * * + +Their locomotive limbs ended in lumpy protuberances that showed no +sign of toes, and they were covered all over with a dull gray hide, +except for the hands at the ends of their handling limbs and the necks +and the faces of their oddly-shaped heads, where the skin ranged in +color from a pinkish an to a definitive brown, depending on the +individual. There was no hair anywhere on their bodies except on the +top and back of their heads. No, wait--there were two long tufts above +each eye. They-- + +"Do you see what they're _eating_?" Wygor's voice whispered. + +Dodeth hadn't. He'd been too busy looking at the things themselves. +But when he did notice, he made a noise like a throttled "_Geep!_" + +_Hurkles!_ + +There were few enough of the animals--only a few small population was +needed to keep the Balance, but they were important. And the swamps +were drying up, and the quiggies were moving in on them, and _now_-- + +Dodeth made a hasty count. Twenty! By the Universal Motivator, these +predators had eaten a hurkle apiece! + +Overhead, the Yellow Sun, a distant dot of intensely bright light, +shed its wan glow over the ghastly scene. Dodeth wished the Moon were +out; its much brighter light would have shown him more detail. + +But he could see well enough to count the gnawed skeletons of the +little, harmless hurkles. Even the Moon, which wouldn't bring morning +for another fifteen work periods yet, couldn't have made it any +plainer that these beasts were deadly dangerous to the Balance. + +"How often do they eat?" he asked in a strained voice. + +It was Wygor's robot, Arsam, who answered. "About three times every +work period. They sleep then. Their metabolic cycle seems to be timed +about the same as yours, sir." + +"_Gaw!_" said Dodeth. "Sixty hurkles per sleep period! Why, they'll +have the whole hurkle population eaten before long! Wygor! As soon as +we can get shots of all this, we're going back! There's not a moment +to lose! This is the most deadly dangerous thing that has ever +happened to the World!" + +"Fry me, yes," Wygor said in an awed voice. "Three hurkles in one +period." + +"Allow me to correct you, sir," said the patrol robot. "They do not +eat that many hurkles. They eat other things besides." + +"Like what, for instance?" Dodeth asked in a choked voice. + +The robot told him, and Dodeth groaned. "Omnivores! That's even worse! +Ardan, pass the word to the scouts to get their pictures and meet at +that tree down there behind us in ten minutes. We've got to get back +to the city!" + + * * * * * + +Dodeth Pell laid his palms flat on the speaker's bench and looked +around at the assembled Keepers of the Balance, wise and prudence +thinkers, who had spent lifetimes in ecological service and had shown +their capabilities many times over. + +"And that's the situation, sirs," he said, after a significant pause. +"The moving and still bathygraphs, the data sheets, and the samplings +of the area all tell the same story. I do not feel that I, alone, can +make the decision. Emotionally, I must admit, I am tempted to destroy +all twenty of the monsters. Intellectually, I realize that we should +attempt to capture at least one family group--if we can discover what +constitutes a family group in this species. Unfortunately, we cannot +tell the sexes apart by visual inspection; the sex organs themselves +must be hidden in the folds of that gray hide. And this is evidently +not their breeding season, for we have seen no sign of sexual +activity. + +"We have very little time, sirs, it seems to me. The damage they have +already done will take years to repair, and the danger of upsetting +the Balance irreparably grows exponentially greater with every passing +work period. + +"Sirs, I ask your advice and your decision." + +There was a murmur of approval for his presentation as he came down +from the speakers bench. Then the Keepers went into their respective +committee meetings so discuss the various problems of detail that had +arisen out of the one great problem. + +Dodeth went into an anteroom and tried to relax and get a little +sleep--though he doubted he'd get any. His nerves were too much on +edge. + +Ardan woke him gently. "Your breakfast, sir." + +Dodeth blinked and jerked his head up. "Oh. Uhum. Ardan! Have the +Keepers reached any decision yet?" + +"No, sir; not yet. The data are still coming in." + +It was three more work periods before the Keepers called Dodeth Pell +before them again. Dodeth could almost read the decision on their +faces--there was both sadness and determination there. + +"It was an uncomfortable decision, Dodeth Pell," said the Eldest +Keeper without preliminary, "but a necessary one. We can find no place +in the Ecological Balance for this species. We have already ordered a +patrol column of two hundred fully-armed pesticide robots to destroy +the animals. Two are to be captured alive, if possible, but, if not, +the bodies will be brought to the biological laboratories for study. +Within a few hours, the species will be nearly or completely extinct. + +"By the way, you may tell your assistant, Wygor, that the animal will +go down in the files as _wygorex_. A unique distinction for him, in +many ways, but not, I fear, a happy one." + +Dodeth nodded silently. Now that the decision had been made, he felt +rather bad about it. Something in him rebelled at the thought of a +species becoming extinct, no matter how great the need. He wondered +if it would be possible for the biologists and the geneticists to +trace the evolution of the animal. He hoped so. At least they deserved +that much. + + * * * * * + +Dodeth Pell delayed returning to his own city; he wanted to wait until +the final results had been brought in before he returned to his +duties. The delay turned out to be a little longer than he +expected--much longer, in fact. The communicator in his temporary room +buzzed, and when he answered, Wygor's voice came to him, a rush of +excited words that didn't make any sense at all at first. And when it +did make sense he didn't believe it. + +"What?" he squealed. "_What?_" + +"I said," Wygor repeated, "that the report has come back from the +pesticide column! They've found no trace of any such animal as we've +described! They're nowhere to be found, in or near the clearing!" + +"I think," said Dodeth very calmly, "that I'll take a little trip over +to the Brightside and take up permanent residence there. It's going to +be pretty hot for me around here before long." + +And he cut the connection without waiting for Wygor's answer. + + * * * * * + +The armored car jounced across the grassland at high speed. Behind it, +two more cars followed, each taking care not to run exactly in the +tracks of the one ahead, so that there would be as little damage as +possible done to the grass. + +In the lead car, Dodeth Pell watched the forest loom nearer, wondering +what sort of madness he would find there this time. Beside him, the +Eldest Keeper dozed gently, in the way that only the very young or the +very old can doze. It was just as well; Dodeth didn't feel much like +talking. + +This time, as they approached the clearing, he didn't bother to tell +the car to stop two miles away. If the animals were gone, there was no +point in being cautious. All through the wooded area, he could see +occasional members of the pesticide robots. He told the car to stop at +the base of the little rise that he used before as a vantage point. +Then, without further preliminaries, he got out of the car and marched +up the slope to take a look at the clearing. Overhead, the burning +spark of the Yellow Sun cast its pale radiance over the landscape. + +At the ridge, he stopped suddenly and ducked his head. Then he grabbed +his field glasses and took a good look. + +The animals had built themselves a few crude-looking shelters out of +the logs, but he hardly noticed that. + +There were four of the animals, in plain sight, standing guard! + +The others were obviously inside the rude huts, asleep! + +Great galloping fungus blight! Was he out of his mind? What was going +on around here? Couldn't the robots _see_ the beasts? + +"That's very odd," said the voice of the Eldest Keeper in puzzled +tones. "I thought the robots said they'd gone away. Lend me your field +glasses." + +[Illustration] + +As he handed the powerful glasses over to the Keeper, who had followed +him up the hill, Dodeth said: "I'm glad you can see them. I thought +maybe my brain had been short-circuited." + +"I can see them," said the Eldest Keeper, peering through the glasses. +Then he handed them back to Dodeth. "Let's get back down to the car. I +want to find out what's going on around here." + +At the car, the Eldest Keeper just scowled for a moment, looking very +worried. By this time, the other two cars had pulled up nearby, +discharging their cargo of two more Keepers apiece. While the Eldest +Keeper talked in low tones with his colleagues, Dodeth stalked over to +one of the pesticide robots who was prowling nearby. + +"Found anything useful?" he asked sarcastically, knowing that sarcasm +was useless on a robot. + +"I'm not looking for anything useful, sir. I'm looking for the animals +we are supposed to destroy." + +"You come over and tell the Eldest Keeper that," Dodeth said. + +"Yes, sir," the robot agreed promptly, rolling along beside Dodeth as +he returned to where the Keepers were waiting. + +"What's going on here?" the Eldest demanded curtly of the robot. "Why +haven't you destroyed the animals?" + +"Because we can't find them, sir." + +"What's your name?" the Eldest snapped. + +"Arike, sir." + +"All right, Arike," said the Eldest somewhat angrily. "Stand by for +orders. You'll repeat them to the other robots, understand?" + +"Yes, sir," said the robot. + +"All right, then," said the Eldest. "First, you take a run up that +hill and look into that clearing. You'll see those creatures in there +all right." + +"Yes, sir. I've seen those creatures in there." + +The Eldest Keeper exploded. "Then get in there and obey your orders! +Don't you realize that their very existence threatens the life of all +of us? They must be eliminated before our whole culture is destroyed! +Do you understand? Obey!" + +"Yes, sir," said the robot. His voice sounded odd, but he spun around +and went to pass the word on to the other robots. Within minutes, more +and more of the pesticide robots were swarming towards and into the +clearing. They could hear rumbling noises from the clearing--low +grunts that were evidently made by animals who were trapped by the +encircling robots. + +And then there was a vast silence. + +Dodeth and the Keepers waited. + +Not a shot was fired. + +It was as though a great, sound-proof blanket had been flung over the +whole area. + + * * * * * + +"What in the Unknown Name of the Universal Motivator is going on +around here?" said Dodeth in a hushed tone. He wondered how many times +he had asked himself that. + +"We may as well take a look," said the Eldest Keeper. + +Two hundred pesticide robots were ranged around the perimeter of the +clearing, their weapons facing inward. Not a one of them moved. + +Inside the circle of machines, the twenty wygorex stood motionless, +watching the ring of robots. Now and then, one of them gave a deep, +coughing rumble, but otherwise they made no noise. + +Dodeth Pell could stand it no longer. "Robots!" He shouted as loudly +as he could, his voice shrill with urgency. "I order you to fire!" + +It was as though he hadn't said a word. Both robots and wygorex +ignored him completely. + +Dodeth turned and yelled to one of the patrol robots that was +standing nearby. "You! What's your name?" + +"Arvam, sir." + +"Arvam, can you tell what it is those things have done to the robots?" + +"They haven't done anything, sir." + +"Then why don't the robots fire as they've been told?" Dodeth didn't +want to admit it, even to himself, but he was badly frightened. He had +never heard of a robot behaving this way before. + +"They can't, sir." + +"They _can't_? Don't they realize that if those things aren't killed, +we may all die?" + +"I didn't know that," said the patrol robot. "If we do not kill them, +then you may be killed, and you have ordered us to kill them, but if +we obey your orders, then we will kill them, and that will mean that +you won't be killed, but they will, so we can't do that, but if we +don't then you _will_ be killed, and we must obey, and that means we +must, but we can't, but if we don't we will, and we can't so we must +but we can't but if we don't you will so we must but we can't but +we--" He kept repeating it over and over again, on and on and on. + +"Stop that!" snapped Dodeth. + +But the robot didn't even seem to hear. + +Dodeth was really frightened now. He looked back at the five keepers +and scuttled toward them. + +"What's wrong with the robots?" he asked shrilly. "They've never +failed us before!" + +The Elder Keeper looked at him. "What makes you think they've failed +us now?" he asked softly. + +Dodeth gaped speechlessly. The Eldest didn't seem to be making any +more sense than the patrol robot had. + +"No," the Keeper went on, "they haven't failed us. They have served us +well. They have pointed out to us something which we have failed to +see, and, in doing so, have saved us from making a catastrophic +error." + +"I don't understand," said Dodeth. + +"I'll explain," the Elder Keeper said, "but first go over to that +patrol robot and tell him quietly that the situation has changed. +Tell him that we are no longer in any danger from the wygorex. Then +bring him over here." + + * * * * * + +Dodeth did as he was told, without understanding at all. + +"I still don't understand, sir," he said bewilderedly. + +"Dodeth, what would happen if I told Arvam, here, to fire on you?" + +"Why ... why, he'd _refuse_." + +"Why should he?" + +"Because I'm _human_! That's the most basic robot command." + +"I don't know," the Eldest said, eying Dodeth shrewdly. "You might not +be a human. You might be a snith. You _look_ like a snith." + +Dodeth swallowed the insult, wondering what the Eldest meant. + +"Arvam," the Eldest Keeper said to the robot, "doesn't he look like a +snith to you?" + +"Yes, sir," Arvam agreed. + +Dodeth swallowed that one, too. + +"Then how do you know he _isn't_ a snith, Arvam?" + +"Because he behaves like a human, sir. A snith does not behave like a +human." + +"And if something does behave like a human, what then?" + +"Anything that behaves like a human is human, sir." + +Dodeth suddenly felt as though his eyes had suddenly focused after +being unfocused for a long time. He gestured toward the clearing. "You +mean those ... those _things_ ... are ... _human_?" + +"Yes sir," said Arvam solidly. + +"But they don't even _talk_!" + +"Pardon me for correcting you sir, but they do. I cannot understand +their speech, but the pattern is clearly recognizable as speech. Most +of their conversation is carried on in tones of subsonic frequency, so +your ears cannot hear it. Apparently, your voices are supersonic to +them." + +"Well, I'll be fried," said Dodeth. He looked at the Elder Keeper. +"That's why the robots reported they couldn't find any _animal_ of +that description in the vicinity." + +"Certainly. There weren't any." + +"And we were so fooled by their monstrous appearance that we didn't +pay any attention to their actions," said Dodeth. + +"Exactly." + +"But this makes the puzzle even _worse_," said Dodeth. "How could such +a creature evolve?" + +"Look!" interrupted one of the other Keepers, pointing. "Up there in +the sky!" + +All eyes turned toward the direction the finger pointed. + +It was a silvery speck in the sky that moved and became larger. + +"I don't think they're from our World at all," said the Eldest Keeper. +He turned to the patrol robot. "Arvam, go down and tell the pesticide +robots that there is no danger to us. They're still confused, and I +have a feeling that the humans in that ship up there might not like it +if we are caught pointing guns at their friends." + +As Arvam rolled off, Dodeth said "Another World?" + +"Why not?" asked the Eldest. "The Moon, after all, is another World, +smaller than ours, to be sure, and airless, but still another World. +We haven't thought too much about other Worlds because we have our own +World to take care of. But there was a time, back in the days of the +builders of the surface cities, when our people dreamed such things. +But our Moon was the only one close enough, and there was no point in +going to a place which is even more hellish than our Brightside. + +"But suppose the Yellow Sun also has a planet--or maybe even one of +the more distant suns, which are hardly more than glimmers of light. +They came, and they landed a few of their party to make a small +clearing. Then the ship went somewhere else--to the dark side of our +Moon, maybe, I don't know. But they were within calling range, for the +ship was called as soon as trouble appeared. + +"We don't know anything about them yet, but we will. And we've got to +show them that we, too, are human. We have a job ahead of us--a job of +communication. + +"But we also have a great future if we handle things right." + +Dodeth watched the ship, now grown to a silvery globe of tremendous +size, drift slowly downward toward the clearing. He felt an inward +glow of intense anticipation, and he fidgeted impatiently as he waited +to see what would happen next. + +He rippled a stomp. + + +THE END + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Asses of Balaam, by Gordon Randall Garrett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ASSES OF BALAAM *** + +***** This file should be named 30583.txt or 30583.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/5/8/30583/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://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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