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diff --git a/30715.txt b/30715.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3c4f657 --- /dev/null +++ b/30715.txt @@ -0,0 +1,698 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Where There's Hope, by Jerome Bixby + +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: Where There's Hope + +Author: Jerome Bixby + +Illustrator: Kelly Freas + +Release Date: December 19, 2009 [EBook #30715] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHERE THERE'S HOPE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + _The women had made up their minds, and nothing--repeat, + nothing--could change them. But _something_ had to give...._ + + +WHERE THERE'S HOPE + +By Jerome Bixby + +Illustrated by Kelly Freas + + +"If you called me here to tell me to have a child," Mary Pornsen said, +"you can just forget about it. We girls have made up our minds." + +Hugh Farrel, Chief Medical Officer of the Exodus VII, sighed and leaned +back in his chair. He looked at Mary's husband. "And you, Ralph," he +said. "How do you feel?" + +Ralph Pornsen looked at Mary uncomfortably, started to speak and then +hesitated. + +Hugh Farrel sighed again and closed his eyes. It was that way with all +the boys. The wives had the whip hand. If the husbands put up an +argument, they'd simply get turned down flat: no sex at all, children or +otherwise. The threat, Farrel thought wryly, made the boys softer than +watered putty. His own wife, Alice, was one of the ringleaders of the +"no babies" movement, and since he had openly declared warfare on the +idea, she wouldn't even let him kiss her good-night. (For fear of losing +her determination, Farrel liked to think.) + +He opened his eyes again to look past the Pornsens, out of the curving +port of his office-lab in the Exodus VII's flank, at the scene outside +the ship. + +At the edge of the clearing he could see Danny Stern and his crew, tiny +beneath the cavernous sunbeam-shot overhang of giant leaves. Danny was +standing up at the controls of the 'dozer, waving his arms. His crew was +struggling to get a log set so he could shove it into place with the +'dozer. They were repairing a break in the barricade--the place where +one of New Earth's giant saurians had come stamping and whistling +through last night to kill three colonists before it could be blasted +out of existence. + +It was difficult. Damned difficult. A brand-new world here, all ready +to receive the refugees from dying Earth. Or rather, all ready to be +_made_ ready, which was the task ahead of the Exodus VII's personnel. + +An Earth-like world. Green, warm, fertile--and crawling, leaping, +hooting and snarling with ferocious beasts of every variety. Farrel +could certainly see the women's point in banding together and refusing +to produce children. Something inside a woman keeps her from wanting to +bring life into peril--at least, when the peril seems temporary, and +security is both remembered and anticipated. + +Pornsen said, "I guess I feel just about like Mary does. I--I don't see +any reason for having a kid until we get this place ironed out and safe +to live in." + +"That's going to take time, Ralph." Farrel clasped his hands in front of +him and delivered the speech he had delivered so often in the past few +weeks. "Ten or twelve years before we really get set up here. We've got +to build from the ground up, you know. We'll have to find and mine our +metals. Build our machines to build shops to build more machines. +There'll be resources that we _won't_ find, and we'll have to learn what +this planet has to offer in their stead. Colonizing New Earth isn't +simply a matter of landing and throwing together a shining city. I only +wish it were. + +"Six weeks ago we landed. We haven't yet dared to venture more than a +mile from this spot. We've cut down trees and built the barricade and +our houses. After protecting ourselves we have to eat. We've planted +gardens. We've produced test-tube calves and piglets. The calves are +doing fine, but the piglets are dying one by one. We've got to find out +why. + +"It's going to be a long, long time before we have even a minimum of +security, much less luxury. Longer than you think.... So much longer +that waiting until the security arrives before having children is out of +the question. There are critters out there--" he nodded toward the port +and the busy clearing beyond--"that we haven't been able to kill. We've +thrown everything we have at them, and they come back for more. We'll +have to find out what _will_ kill them--how they differ from those we +_are_ able to kill. We are six hundred people and a spaceship, Ralph. We +have techniques. That's _all_. Everything else we've got to dig up out +of this planet. We'll need people, Mary; we'll need the children. We're +counting on them. They're vital to the plans we've made." + +Mary Pornsen said, "Damn the plans. I won't have one. Not now. You've +just done a nice job of describing all my reasons. And all the other +girls feel the same way." + + * * * * * + +She looked out the window at the 'dozer and crew. Danny Stern was still +waving his arms; the log was almost in place. "George and May Wright +were killed last night. So was Farelli. If George and May had had a +child, the monster would have trampled it too--it went right through +their cabin like cardboard. It isn't fair to bring a baby into--" + +Farrel said, "Fair, Mary? Maybe it isn't fair _not_ to have one. _Not_ +to bring it into being and give it a chance. Life's always a gamble--" + +"_It_ doesn't exist," Mary said. She smiled. "Don't try circumlocution +on me, Doc. I'm not religious. I don't believe that spermatozoa and an +ovum, if not allowed to cuddle up together, add up to murder." + +"That isn't what I meant--" + +"You were getting around to it--which means you've run out of good +arguments." + +"No. I've a few left." Farrel looked at the two stubborn faces: Mary's, +pleasant and pretty, but set as steel; Ralph's, uncomfortable, +thoughtful, but mirroring his definite willingness to follow his wife's +lead. + +Farrel cleared his throat. "You know how important it is that this +colony be established? You know that, don't you? In twenty years or so +the ships will start arriving. Hundreds of them. Because we sent a +message back to Earth saying we'd found a habitable planet. Thousands of +people from Earth, coming here to the new world we're supposed to get +busy and carve out for them. We were selected for that task--first of +judging the right planet, then of working it over. Engineers, chemists, +agronomists, all of us--we're the task force. We've got to do the job. +We've got to test, plant, breed, re-balance, create. There'll be a lot +of trial and error. We've got to work out a way of life, so the +thousands who will follow can be introduced safely and painlessly into +the--well, into the organism. And we'll need new blood for the jobs +ahead. We'll need young people--" + +Mary said, "A few years one way or the other won't matter much, Doc. +Five or six years from now this place will be a lot safer. Then we women +will start producing. But not now." + +"It won't work that way," Farrel said. "We're none of us kids any +longer. I'm fifty-five. Ralph, you're forty-three. I realize that I must +be getting old to think of you as young. Mary, you're thirty-seven. We +took a long time getting here. Fourteen years. We left an Earth that's +dying of radioactive poisoning, and we all got a mild dose of that. The +radiation we absorbed in space, little as it was, didn't help any. And +that sun up there--" again he nodded at the port--"isn't any help +either. Periodically it throws off some pretty damned funny stuff. + +"Frankly, we're worried. We don't know whether or not we _can_ have +children. Or _normal_ children. We've got to find out. If our genes have +been bollixed up, we've got to find out why and how and get to work on +it immediately. It may be unpleasant. It may be heart-breaking. But +those who will come here in twenty years will have absorbed much more of +Earth's radioactivity than we did, and an equal amount of the space +stuff, and this sun will be waiting for them.... We'll have to know what +we can do for them." + +"I'm not a walking laboratory, Doc," Mary said. + +"I'm afraid you are, Mary. All of you are." + +Mary set her lips and stared out the port. + +"It's got to be done, Mary." + +She didn't answer. + +"It's going to be done." + +"Choose someone else," she said. + +"That's what they all say." + +She said, "I guess this is one thing you doctors and psychologists +didn't figure on, Doc." + +"Not at first," Farrel said. "But we've given it some thought." + +MacGuire had installed the button convenient to Farrel's right hand, +just below the level of the desk-top. Farrel pressed it. Ralph and Mary +Pornsen slumped in their chairs. The door opened, and Doctor John J. +MacGuire and Ted Harris, the Exodus VII's chief psychologist, came in. + + * * * * * + +When it was over, and the after-play had been allowed to run its course, +Farrel told the Pornsens to go into the next room and shower. They came +back soon, looking refreshed. Farrel ordered them to get back into their +clothes. Under the power of the hypnotic drug which their chairs had +injected into them at the touch of the button, they did so. Then he told +them to sit down in the chairs again. + +MacGuire and Harris had gathered up their equipment, piling it on top of +the operating table. + +MacGuire smiled. "I'll bet that's the best-monitored, most hygienic sex +act ever committed. I think I've about got the space radiations effect +licked." + +Farrel nodded. "If anything goes wrong, it certainly won't be our fault. +But let's face it--the chances are a thousand to one that something +_will_ go wrong. We'll just have to wait. And work." He looked at the +Pornsens. "They're very much in love, aren't they? And she was receptive +to the suggestion--beneath it all, she was burning to have a child, just +like the others." + +MacGuire wheeled out the operating table, with its load of serums, +pressure-hypos and jury-rigged thingamabobs which he was testing on +alternate couples. Ted Harris stopped at the door a moment. He said, "I +think the suggestions I planted will turn the trick when they find out +she's pregnant. They'll come through okay--won't even be too angry." + +Farrel sighed. They'd been over it in detail several times, of course, +but apparently Harris needed the reassurance as much as he did. He said: +"Sure. Now scram so I can go back into my act." + +Harris closed the door. Farrel sat down at his desk and studied the pair +before him. They looked back contentedly, holding hands, their eyes +dull. + +Farrel said, "How do you feel?" + +Ralph Pornsen said, "I feel fine." + +Mary Pornsen said, "Oh, I feel _wonderful_!" + +Deliberately Farrel pressed another button below his desk-top. + +The dull eyes cleared instantly. + +"Oh, you've given it some thought, Doc?" Mary said sweetly. "And what +have you decided?" + +"You'll see," Farrel said. "Eventually." + +He rose. "That's all for now, kids. I'd like to see you again in one +month--for a routine check-up." + +Mary nodded and got up. "You'll still have to wait, Doc. Why not admit +you're licked?" + +Ralph got up too, and looked puzzled. + +"Wow," he said. "I'm tired." + +"Perhaps just coming here," Farrel said, "discharged some of the tension +you've been carrying around." + +The Pornsens left. + +Farrel brought out some papers from his desk and studied them. Then, +from the file drawer, he selected the record of Hugh and Alice Farrel. +Alice would be at the perfect time of her menstrual cycle tomorrow.... + +Farrel flipped his communicator. + +"MacGuire," he said. "Tomorrow it's me." + +MacGuire chuckled. Farrel could have kicked him. He put his chin in his +hands and stared out the port. Danny Stern had the log in place in the +barricade. The bulldozer was moving on to a new task. His momentary +doubt stilled, Farrel went back to work. + + * * * * * + +Twenty-one years later, when the ships from Earth began arriving, the +log had been replaced by a stone monument erected to the memory of the +Exodus VII, which had been cut apart for its valuable steel. Around the +monument was a park, and on three sides of the park was a shining +town--not really large enough to be called a city--of plastic and stone, +for New Earth had no iron ore, only zinc and a little copper. This was +often cause for regret. + +Still it was a pretty good world. The monster problem had been licked by +high-voltage cannon. Now in their third generation since the landing, +the monsters kept their distance. And things grew--things good to eat. + +And even without steel, the graceful, smoothly-functioning town looked +impressive--quite a thing to have been built by a handful of beings with +two arms and two legs each. + +It hadn't been, entirely. But nobody thought much about that any more. +Even the newcomers got used to it. Things change. + + +THE END + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from _If Worlds of Science Fiction_ November + 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and + typographical errors have been corrected without note. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Where There's Hope, by Jerome Bixby + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHERE THERE'S HOPE *** + +***** This file should be named 30715.txt or 30715.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/7/1/30715/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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