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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Backlash, by Winston Marks
+
+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: Backlash
+
+Author: Winston Marks
+
+Illustrator: SIBLEY
+
+Release Date: June 15, 2010 [EBook #32828]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BACKLASH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              BACKLASH
+
+                          By WINSTON MARKS
+
+                        Illustrated by SIBLEY
+
+[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction
+January 1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
+U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
+
+
+[Sidenote: They were the perfect servants--they were willing to do
+everything for nothing. The obvious question is: How much is nothing?]
+
+
+I still feel that the ingratiating little runts never _intended_ any
+harm. They were eager to please, a cinch to transact business with, and
+constantly, everlastingly grateful to us for giving them asylum.
+
+Yes, we gave the genuflecting little devils asylum. And we were glad to
+have them around at first--especially when they presented our women with
+a gift to surpass all gifts: a custom-built domestic servant.
+
+In a civilization that had made such a fetish of personal liberty and
+dignity, you couldn't hire a butler or an upstairs maid for less than
+love _and_ money. And since love was pretty much rationed along the
+lines of monogamy, domestic service was almost a dead occupation. That
+is, until the Ollies came to our planet to stay.
+
+Eventually I learned to despise the spineless little immigrants from
+Sirius, but the first time I met one he made me feel foolishly
+important. I looked at his frail, olive-skinned little form, and
+thought, _If this is what space has to offer in the way of advanced
+life-forms ... well, we haven't done so badly on old Mother Earth_.
+
+This one's name was Johnson. All of them, the whole fifty-six, took the
+commonest Earth family names they could find, and dropped their own
+name-designations whose slobbering sibilance made them difficult for us
+to pronounce and write. It seemed strange, their casually wiping out
+their nominal heritage just for the sake of our convenience--imagine an
+O'Toole or a Rockefeller or an Adams arriving on Sirius IV and no sooner
+learning the local lingo than insisting on becoming known as
+Sslyslasciff-soszl!
+
+But that was the Ollie. Anything to get along and please us. And of
+course, addressing them as Johnson, Smith, Jones, etc., did work
+something of a semantic protective coloration and reduce some of the
+barriers to quick adjustment to the aliens.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Johnson--_Ollie_ Johnson--appeared at my third under-level office a few
+months after the big news of their shipwreck landing off the Maine
+coast. He arrived a full fifteen minutes ahead of his appointment, and I
+was too curious to stand on the dignity of office routine and make him
+wait.
+
+As he stood in the doorway of my office, my first visual impression was
+of an emaciated adolescent, seasick green, prematurely balding.
+
+He bowed, and bowed again, and spent thirty seconds reminding me that it
+was _he_ who had sought the interview, and it was _he_ who had the big
+favors to ask--and it was wonderful, gracious, generous _I_ who flavored
+the room with the essence of mystery, importance, godliness and
+overpowering sweetness upon whose fragrance little Ollie Johnson had
+come to feast his undeserving senses.
+
+"Sit down, sit down," I told him when I had soaked in all the celestial
+flattery I could hold. "I love you to pieces, too, but I'm curious about
+this proposition you mentioned in your message."
+
+He eased into the chair as if it were much too good for him. He was
+strictly humanoid. His four-and-a-half-foot body was dressed in the most
+conservative Earth clothing, quiet colors and cheap quality.
+
+While he swallowed slowly a dozen times, getting ready to outrage my
+illustrious being with his sordid business proposition, his coloring
+varied from a rather insipid gray-green to a rich olive--which is why
+the press instantly had dubbed them _Ollies_. When they got excited and
+blushed, they came close to the color of a ripe olive; and this was
+often.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ollie Johnson hissed a few times, his equivalent of throat-clearing, and
+then lunged into his subject at a 90 degree tangent:
+
+"Can it be that your gracious agreement to this interview connotes a
+willingness to traffic with us of the inferior ones?" His voice was
+light, almost reedy.
+
+"If it's legal and there's a buck in it, can't see any reason why not,"
+I told him.
+
+"You manufacture and distribute devices, I am told. Wonderful
+labor-saving mechanisms that make life on Earth a constant pleasure."
+
+I was almost tempted to hire him for my public relations staff.
+
+"We do," I admitted. "Servo-mechanisms, appliances and gadgets of many
+kinds for the home, office and industry."
+
+"It is to our everlasting disgrace," he said with humility, "that we
+were unable to salvage the means to give your magnificent civilization
+the worthy gift of our space drive. Had Flussissc or Shascinssith
+survived our long journey, it would be possible, but--" He bowed his
+head, as if waiting for my wrath at the stale news that the only two
+power-mechanic scientists on board were D.O.A.
+
+"That was tough," I said. "But what's on your mind now?"
+
+He raised his moist eyes, grateful at my forgiveness. "We who survived
+do possess a skill that might help repay the debt which we have incurred
+in intruding upon your glorious planet."
+
+He begged my permission to show me something in the outer waiting room.
+With more than casual interest, I assented.
+
+He moved obsequiously to the door, opened it and spoke to someone beyond
+my range of vision. His words sounded like a repetition of
+"_sissle-flissle_." Then he stepped aside, fastened his little wet eyes
+on me expectantly, and waited.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Suddenly the doorway was filled, jamb to jamb, floor to arch, with a
+hulking, bald-headed character with rugged pink features, a broad nose
+like a pug, and huge sugar-scoops for ears. He wore a quiet business
+suit of fine quality, obviously tailored to his six-and-a-half-foot,
+cliff-like physique. In spite of his bulk, he moved across the carpet to
+my desk on cat feet, and came to a halt with pneumatic smoothness.
+
+"I am a Soth," he said in a low, creamy voice. It was so resonant that
+it seemed to come from the walls around us. "I have learned your
+language and your ways. I can follow instructions, solve simple problems
+and do your work. I am very strong. I can serve you well."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The recitation was an expressionless monotone that sounded almost
+haughty compared to the self-effacing Ollie's piping whines. His face
+had the dignity of a rock, and his eyes the quiet peace of a cool, deep
+mountain lake.
+
+The Ollie came forward. "We have been able to repair only one of the six
+Soths we had on the ship. They are more fragile than we humanoids."
+
+"They don't look it," I said. "And what do you mean by _you_ humanoids?
+What's he?"
+
+"You would call him--a robot, I believe."
+
+My astonished reaction must have satisfied the Ollie, because he allowed
+his eyes to leave me and seek the carpet again, where they evidently
+were more comfortable.
+
+"You mean you--you _make_ these people?" I gasped.
+
+He nodded. "We can reproduce them, given materials and facilities. Of
+course, your own robots must be vastly superior--" a hypocritical sop to
+my vanity--"but still we hope you may find a use for the Soths."
+
+I got up and walked around the big lunker, trying to look blase. "Well,
+yes," I lied. "Our robots probably have considerably better intellectual
+abilities--our cybernetic units, that is. However, you do have something
+in form and mobility."
+
+That was the understatement of my career.
+
+I finally pulled my face together, and said as casually as I could,
+"Would you like to license us to manufacture these--Soths?"
+
+The Ollie fluttered his hands. "But that would require our working and
+mingling with your personnel," he said. "We wouldn't consider imposing
+in such a gross manner."
+
+"No imposition at all," I assured him.
+
+But he would have none of it: "We have studied your economics and have
+found that your firm is an outstanding leader in what you term
+'business.' You have a superb distribution organization. It is our
+intention to offer you the exclusive--" he hesitated, then dragged the
+word from his amazing vocabulary--"franchise for the sale of our Soths.
+If you agree, we will not burden you with their manufacture. Our own
+little plant will produce and ship. You may then place them with your
+customers."
+
+I studied the magnificent piece of animated sculpturing, stunned at the
+possibilities. "You say a Soth is strong. How strong?"
+
+The huge creature startled me by answering the question himself. He bent
+flowingly from the waist, gripped my massive steel desk by one of its
+thick, overlapping top edges, and raised it a few inches from the
+floor--with the fingers of one hand. When he put it down, I stood up and
+hefted one edge myself. By throwing my back into it, I could just budge
+one side of the clumsy thing--four hundred pounds if it was an ounce!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ollie Johnson modestly refrained from comment. He said, "The Department
+of Commerce has been helpful. They have explained your medium of
+exchange, and have helped us with the prices of raw materials. It was
+they who recommended your firm as a likely distributor."
+
+"Have you figured how much one of these Soths should sell for?"
+
+"We think we can show a modest profit if we sell them to you for $1200,"
+he said. "Perhaps we can bring down our costs, if you find a wide enough
+demand for them."
+
+I had expected ten or twenty times that figure. I'm afraid I got a
+little eager. "I--uh--shall we see if we can't just work out a little
+contract right now? Save you another trip back this afternoon."
+
+"If you will forgive our boorish presumption," Ollie said, fumbling
+self-consciously in his baggy clothing, "I have already prepared such a
+document with the help of the Attorney General. A very kindly
+gentleman."
+
+It was simple and concise. It allowed us to resell the Soths at a price
+of $2000, Fair Traded, giving us a gross margin of $800 to work with. He
+assured me that upkeep and repairs on the robot units were negligible,
+and we could extend a very generous warranty which the Ollies would make
+good in the event of failure. He gave me a quick rundown on the care and
+feeding of a Sirian Soth, and then jolted me with:
+
+"There is just a single other favor I beg of you. Would you do my little
+colony the exquisite honor of accepting this Soth as your personal
+servant, Mr. Collins?"
+
+"Servant?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He bobbed his head. "Yes, sir. We have trained him in the rudiments of
+the household duties and conventions of your culture. He learns rapidly
+and never forgets an instruction. Your wife would find Soth most useful,
+I am quite certain."
+
+"A magnificent specimen like this doing _housework_?" I marveled at the
+little creature's empty-headedness.
+
+"Again I must beg your pardon, sir. I overlooked mentioning a suggestion
+by the Secretary of Labor that the Soths be sold only for use in
+domestic service. It was also the consensus of the President's whole
+cabinet that the economy of any nation could not cope with the problem
+of unemployment were our Soths to be made available for all the types of
+work for which they are fitted."
+
+My dream of empire collapsed. The little green fellow was undoubtedly
+telling the truth. The unions would strike any plant or facility in the
+world where a Soth put foot on the job. It would ruin our retail
+consumer business, too--Soths wouldn't consume automobiles, copters,
+theater tickets and filets mignon.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Johnson," I sighed. "I'll be happy to try out your Soth. We
+have a place out in the country where he'll come in handy."
+
+The Ollie duly expressed his ecstasy at my decision, and backed out of
+my office waving his copy of the contract. I had assured him that our
+board of directors would meet within a week and confirm my signature.
+
+I looked up at the hairless giant. As general director of the Home
+Appliance Division of Worldwide Machines, Incorporated, I had made a
+deal, all right. The first interplanetary business deal in history.
+
+But for some reason, I couldn't escape the feeling that I'd been had.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the limoucopter, they charged me double fare for Soth's
+transportation to the private field where I kept my boat. As we left
+Detroit, I watched him stare down at the flattened skyline, but he did
+it with the unseeing expression of an old commuter.
+
+Jack, my personal pilot, had eyed my passenger at the airport with some
+concern and sullen muttering. Now he made much of trimming ship after
+takeoff. The boat did seem logy with the unaccustomed ballast--it was a
+four-passenger Arrow, built for speed, and Soth had to crouch and spread
+all over the two rear seats. But he did so without complaint or comment
+for the half-hour hop up to our estate on my favorite Canadian lake.
+
+As the four hundred miles unreeled below us, I wondered how Vicki would
+react to Soth. I should have phoned her, but how do you describe a Soth
+to a semi-invalid whose principal excitement is restricted to
+bird-watching and repotting puny geraniums, and a rare sunfishing
+expedition to the end of our floating pier?
+
+Well, it was Friday, and I would have the whole weekend to work the
+robot into our routine. I had called my friend, Dr. Frederick Hilliard,
+a retired industrial psychologist, and invited him to drop over tonight
+if he wanted an interesting surprise. He was our nearest neighbor and my
+most frequent chess partner, who lived a secluded bachelor's life in a
+comfortable cabin on the far shore of our lake.
+
+As we came in for a water landing, I saw Fred's boat at our pier. Then I
+could make out Fred, Vicki and Clumsy, our Irish setter, all waiting for
+me. I hoped Fred's presence would help simmer Vicki down a little.
+
+We drifted in to the dock, and I turned to Soth and told him to help my
+pilot unload the supplies. This pleased Jack, whose Pilot and
+Chauffeur's Local frequently reminded me in polite little bulletins that
+its members were not obligated to perform other than technical services
+for their employers.
+
+Then I got out and said hello to Vicki and Fred as casually as possible.
+Vicki kissed me warmly on the mouth, which she does when she's excited,
+and then clung to me and let the day's tension soak out of her.
+
+How you get tense in a Twenty-first Century home in the midst of the
+Canadian wilderness is something I've never been able to figure out, but
+Vicki's super-imagination managed daily to defeat her doctor's orders
+for peace and quiet.
+
+"I'm glad you're home, dear," she said. "When Fred came over ahead of
+time I knew something was up, and I'm all unraveled with curiosity."
+
+Just then Soth emerged from the boat with our whole week's supply of
+foodstuffs and assorted necessities bundled under his long arms.
+
+"Oh, dear God, a dinner guest!" Vicki exclaimed. Tears started into her
+reproachful eyes and her slender little figure stiffened in my arms.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I swung her around, hooked arms with her and Fred, and started up the
+path.
+
+"Not a guest," I told her. "He's a servant who will make the beds, clean
+up and all sorts of things, and if you don't like him we'll turn him in
+on a new model laundry unit, and don't start worrying about being alone
+with him--he's a robot."
+
+"A robot!" Fred said, and both their heads swiveled to stare back.
+
+"Yes," I said. "That's why I wanted you here tonight, Fred. I'd like to
+have you sort of go over him and--well, you know--"
+
+I didn't want to say, _make sure he's safe_. Not in Vicki's presence.
+But Fred caught my eye and nodded.
+
+I started to tell them of my visitor, and the contract with the
+castaways from space. Halfway through, Clumsy interrupted me with his
+excited barking. I looked back. Clumsy was galloping a frantic circle
+around Soth, cutting in and out, threatening to make an early dinner of
+the intruder's leg.
+
+Before I could speak, Soth opened his lips and let out a soft hiss
+through his white teeth. Clumsy flattened to the ground and froze, and
+Soth continued after us without a further glance at the dog.
+
+Fred looked at Vicki's tense face and laughed. "I'll have to learn that
+trick ... Clumsy's chewed the cuffs off three pairs of my best slacks."
+
+Vicki smiled uncertainly, and went into the house. I showed Soth where
+to stow the supplies, and told him to remain in the kitchen. He just
+froze where he stood.
+
+Fred was making drinks when I returned to the living room.
+
+"Looks docile enough, Cliff," he told me.
+
+"Strong as a horse and gentle as a lamb," I said. "I want you two to
+help me find out what his talents are. I'll have to prepare a paper on
+him for the board of directors Monday."
+
+There were nervous whitecaps on Vicki's drink.
+
+I patted her shoulder. "I'll break him into the housekeeping routine,
+honey. You won't have him staring over your shoulder."
+
+She tried to relax. "But he's so quiet--and big!"
+
+"Who wants a noisy little servant around?" Fred said helpfully. "And how
+about that rock retaining-wall Cliff is always about to build for your
+garden? And you really don't love housework, do you, Vicki?"
+
+"I don't mind the chores," she said. "But it might be fun to have a big
+fellow like that to shove around." She was trying valiantly to hold up
+her end, but the vein in her temple was throbbing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Well, the next forty-eight hours were more than interesting. Soth turned
+out to be what the doctor ordered, literally and figuratively. After I'd
+taken him on a tour of the place, I showed him how to work the automatic
+devices--food preparation, laundry and cleaning. And after one lesson,
+he served us faultless meals with a quiet efficiency that was actually
+restful, even miraculously to Vicki.
+
+She began relaxing in his presence and planning a few outside projects
+"to get our money's worth" out of the behemoth. This was our earliest
+joke about Soth, because he certainly was no expense or problem to
+maintain. As the Ollie had promised, he thrived on our table scraps and
+a pink concoction which he mixed by pouring a few drops of purple liquid
+from a pocket vial into a gallon pitcher of water. The stuff would be
+supplied by the Ollies at a cost of about a dollar eighty a week.
+
+Saturday afternoon, Vicki bravely took over teaching him the amenities
+of butlering and the intricacies of bed-making. After a short session in
+the bedroom, she came out looking thoughtful.
+
+"He's awfully real looking," she said. "And you can't read a darned
+thing in his eyes. How far can you trust him, Cliff? You know--around
+women?"
+
+Fred looked at me with a raised eyebrow and said, "Well, let's find
+out."
+
+We sat down and called Soth into the living room. He came and stood
+before us, erect, poised and motionless.
+
+Fred said, "Disrobe. Remove all your clothing. Strip!"
+
+Vicki sucked in her breath.
+
+The Soth replied instantly, "Your order conflicts with my conditioning.
+I must not remove my covering in the presence of an Earthwoman."
+
+Fred scratched his gray temple thoughtfully. "Then, Vicki, would you
+mind disrobing, please?"
+
+She gulped again. Fred was an old friend, but not exactly the family
+doctor.
+
+He sensed her mild outrage. "You'll never stop wondering if you don't,"
+he said.
+
+She looked at Fred, me, and then Soth. Then she stood up gingerly, as if
+edging into a cold shower, gritted her teeth, grasped the catch to her
+full-length zipper of her blue lounging suit and stripped it from armpit
+to ankle. As she stepped out of it, I saw why she had peeled it off like
+you would a piece of adhesive tape: It was a warm day, and she wore no
+undergarments.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Soth moved so softly I didn't hear him go, but Fred was watching
+him--Fred's eyes were where they belonged. Soth stopped in the archway
+to the dining room with his back turned. Fred was at his side.
+
+"Why did you leave?" Fred demanded.
+
+"I am not permitted to remain in the company of an uncovered
+Earthwoman ... unless she directs me to do so."
+
+While Vicki fled behind the French door to dress herself, Fred asked,
+"Are there any other restrictions to your behavior in the presence of
+Earthwomen?"
+
+"Many."
+
+"Recount some of them."
+
+"An Earthwoman may not be touched, regardless of her wishes, unless
+danger to her life requires it."
+
+"Looks like you wash your own back, Vicki," I chuckled.
+
+"What else?" she asked, poking her head out. "I mean what other things
+can't you do?"
+
+"There are many words I may not utter, postures I may not assume, and
+certain duties I may not perform. Certain answers to questions may not
+be given in the presence of an Earthwoman."
+
+Fred whistled. "The Ollies have mastered more than our language ... I
+thought you said they were noted mainly for their linguistic talents,
+Cliff."
+
+I was surprised, too. In the space of a few hectic months our alien
+visitors had probed deeply into our culture, mores and taboos--and then
+had had the genius to instill their compounded discretions into their
+Soths.
+
+I said, "Satisfied, Vicki?"
+
+She was still arranging herself. Her lips curled up at the corners
+impishly. "I'm almost disappointed," she said. "I do an all-out
+striptease, and no one looks but my husband. Of course," she added
+thoughtfully, "I suppose that's something...."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Fred stayed with us until Sunday evening. I went down to the pier to
+smoke a good-night pipe with him, and get his private opinion.
+
+"I'm buying a hundred shares of Worldwide stock tomorrow," he declared.
+"That critter is worth his weight in diamonds to every well-heeled
+housewife in the country. In fact, put me down for one of your first
+models. I wouldn't mind having a laundry sorter and morning
+coffee-pourer, myself."
+
+"Think he's safe, do you?"
+
+"No more emotions than that stump over there. And it baffles me. He has
+self-awareness, pain-sensitivity and a fantastic vocabulary, yet I
+needled him all afternoon with every semantic hypo I could think of
+without getting a flicker of emotion out of him." He paused.
+"Incidentally, I made him strip for me in my room. You'll be as confused
+as I was to learn that he's every inch a man in his format."
+
+"What?" I exclaimed.
+
+"Made me wonder what his duties included back on his home planet ... but
+as I said, no emotions. With the set of built-in inhibitions he has,
+he'd beat a eunuch out of his job any day of the week."
+
+A few seconds later, Fred dropped into his little two-seater and skimmed
+off for home, leaving me with a rather disturbing question in my mind.
+
+I went back to the house and cornered Soth out in the kitchen alone.
+Vicki had him polishing all the antique silverware.
+
+"Are there female Soths?" I asked point-blank.
+
+He looked down at me with that relaxed, pink look and said, "No, Mr.
+Collins," and went back to his polishing.
+
+The damned liar. He knew what I meant. He justified himself on a
+technicality.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I left Vicki Monday morning with more confidence than I'd had in ages.
+She had slept especially well, and the only thing on her mind was
+Clumsy's disappearance. He hadn't shown up since Soth scared the fleas
+off him with that hiss.
+
+At the office, I had my girl transcribe my notes and work up a
+memorandum to the board of directors. We sent it around before noon, and
+shortly after lunch I had calls from all ten of them, including the
+chairman. It was not that they considered it such a big thing--they were
+just plainly curious. We scheduled a meeting for Tuesday morning, to
+talk the thing over.
+
+That night when I got home, all was serene. Soth served us cocktails,
+dinner and a late snack, and had the place tidied up by bedtime. He did
+all this and managed to remain virtually invisible. He moved so quietly
+and with such uncanny anticipation of our demands, it was if he were an
+old family retainer, long versed in our habits and customs.
+
+Vicki bragged as she undressed that she had the giant hog-tied and
+jumping through hoops.
+
+"We even got half the excavation done for the rock wall," she said
+proudly.
+
+On impulse, I went out into the hall and down to Soth's room, where I
+found him stretched out slaunchwise across the double bed.
+
+He opened his eyes as I came in, but didn't stir.
+
+"Are you happy here?" I asked bluntly.
+
+He sat up and did something new. He answered my question with a
+question. "Are you happy with my services?"
+
+I said, "Yes, of course."
+
+"Then all is well," he replied simply, and lay down again.
+
+It seemed like a satisfactory answer. He radiated a feeling of peace,
+and the expression of repose on his heavy features was assuring.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It rained hard and cold during the night. I hadn't shown Soth how to
+start the automatic heating unit. When I left the house next morning, he
+was bringing Vicki her breakfast in bed, a tray on one arm and a handful
+of kindling under the other. Only once had he watched me build a fire in
+the fireplace, but he proceeded with confidence.
+
+We flew blind through filthy weather all the way to Detroit. I dismissed
+Jack with orders to return at eleven with Soth.
+
+"Don't be late," I warned him.
+
+Jack looked a little uneasy, but he showed up on schedule and delivered
+Soth to us with rain droplets on his massive bald pate, just ten minutes
+after the conference convened.
+
+I had Ollie Johnson there, too, to put Soth through his paces. The
+Ollie, in a bedraggled, soggy suit, was so excited that he remained an
+almost purplish black for the whole hour.
+
+The directors were charmed, impressed and enthusiastic.
+
+When I finished my personal report on the Soth's tremendous success in
+my own household, old Gulbrandson, Chairman of the Board, shined his
+rosy cheeks with his handkerchief and said, "I'll take the first three
+you produce, Johnson. Our staff of domestics costs me more than a brace
+of attorneys, and it turns over about three times a year. Cook can't
+even set the timer on the egg-cooker right." He turned to me. "Sure he
+can make good coffee, Collins?"
+
+I nodded emphatically.
+
+"Then put me down for three for sure," he said with executive finality.
+
+Gulbrandson paid dearly for his piggishness later, but at the time it
+seemed only natural that if one Soth could run a household efficiently,
+then the Chairman of the Board should have at least two spares in case
+one blew a fuse or a vesicle or whatever it was they might blow.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A small, dignified riot almost broke up the meeting right there, and
+when they quieted down again I had orders for twenty-six Soths from the
+board members and one from my own secretary.
+
+"How soon," I asked Ollie Johnson, "can you begin deliveries?"
+
+He dry-washed his hands and admitted it would be five months, and a sigh
+of disappointment ran around the table. Then someone asked him how many
+units a month they could turn out.
+
+He stared at the carpet and held out his hands like a pawn-broker
+disparaging a diamond ring: "Our techniques are so slow. The first
+month, maybe a hundred. Of course, once our cultures are all producing
+in harmony, almost any number. One thousand? Ten thousand? Whatever your
+needs suggest."
+
+One of the officers asked, "Is your process entirely biological? You
+mentioned cultures."
+
+For a moment, I thought Ollie Johnson was going to break out in tears.
+His face twisted.
+
+"Abysmally so," he grieved. "Our synthetic models have never proved
+durable. Upkeep and parts replacements are prohibitive. Our brain units
+are much similar to your own latest developments in positronics, but we
+have had to resort to organic cellular structure in order to achieve the
+mobility which Mr. Collins admired last Friday."
+
+The upshot of the meeting was a hearty endorsement over my signature on
+the Ollies' contract, plus an offer of any help they might need to get
+production rolling.
+
+As the meeting broke up, they pumped my hand and stared enviously at my
+Soth. Several offered me large sums for him, up to fifteen thousand
+dollars, and for the moment I sweated out the rack of owning something
+my bosses did not. Their understandable resentment, however, was
+tempered by their recognition of my genius in getting a signed contract
+before the Ollies went shopping to our competitors.
+
+What none of us understood right then was that the Ollies were hiring
+us, not the other way around.
+
+When I told Vicki about my hour of triumph and how the officers bid up
+our Soth, she glowed with the very feminine delight of exclusive
+possession. She hugged me and gloated, "Old biddy Gulbrandson--won't she
+writhe? And don't you dare take _any_ offer for our Soth. He's one of
+the family now, eh, Soth, old boy?"
+
+He was serving soup to her as she slapped him on the hip. Somehow he
+managed to retreat so fast she almost missed him, yet he didn't spill a
+drop of bouillon from the poised tureen.
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Collins," he said, not a trace more nor less aloof than
+usual.
+
+"Oops, sorry!" Vicki apologized. "I forgot. The code."
+
+I had the feeling that warm-hearted Vicki would have had the Soth down
+on the bearskin rug in front of the big fireplace, scuffling him like
+she did Clumsy, if it hadn't been for the Soth's untouchable code--and I
+was thankful that it existed. Vicki had a way of putting her hand on you
+when she spoke, or hugging anyone in sight when she was especially
+delighted.
+
+And I knew something about Soth that she didn't. Something that
+apparently hadn't bothered her mind since the day of her striptease.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Summer was gone and it was mid-fall before Ollie paid me another visit.
+When he showed up again, it was with an invoice for 86 Soths, listed by
+serial numbers and ready to ship. He had heard about sight drafts and
+wanted me to help him prepare one.
+
+"To hell with that noise," I told him. I wrote a note to purchasing and
+countersigned the Ollie's invoice for some $103,000. I called my
+secretary and told her to take Ollie and his bill down to disbursing and
+have him paid off.
+
+I had to duck behind my desk before the Ollie dreamed up some new
+obscenity of gratitude to heap on me. Then I cleared shipping
+instructions through sales for the Soths already on order and dictated a
+memo to our promotion department. I cautioned them to go slowly at
+first--the Soths would be on tight allotment for a while.
+
+One snarl developed. The Department of Internal Revenue landed on us
+with the question: Were the Soths manufactured or grown? We beat them
+out of a manufacturer's excise tax, but it cost us plenty in legal fees.
+
+The heads of three labor unions called on me the same afternoon of the
+tax hearing. They got their assurances in the form of a clause in the
+individual purchase contracts, to the effect that the "consumer" agreed
+not to employ a Soth for the purpose of evading labor costs in the arts,
+trades and professions as organized under the various unions, and at all
+times to be prepared to withdraw said Soth from any unlisted job in
+which the unions might choose to place a member human worker.
+
+Before they left, all three union men placed orders for household Soths.
+
+"Hell," said one, "that's less than the cost of a new car. Now maybe my
+wife will get off my back on this damfool business of organizing a
+maid's and butler's union. Takes members to run a union, and the only
+real butler in our neighborhood makes more than I do."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That's the way it went. The only reason we spent a nickel on advertising
+was to brag up the name of W. W. M. and wave our coup in the faces of
+our competitors. By Christmas, production was up to two thousand units a
+month, and we were already six thousand orders behind.
+
+The following June, the Ollies moved into a good hunk of the old
+abandoned Willow Run plant and got their production up to ten thousand a
+month. Only then could we begin to think of sending out floor samples of
+Soths to our distributors.
+
+It was fall before the distributors could place samples with the most
+exclusive of their retail accounts. The interim was spent simply
+relaying frantic priority orders from high-ranking people all over the
+globe directly to the plant, where the Ollies filled them right out of
+the vats.
+
+Twenty thousand a month was their limit, it turned out. Even when they
+had human crews completely trained in all production phases, the
+fifty-six Ollies could handle only that many units in their secret
+conditioning and training laboratories.
+
+For over two more years, business went on swimmingly. I got a fancy
+bonus and a nice vacation in Paris, where I was the rage of the
+continent. I was plagued with requests for speaking engagements, which
+invariably turned out to be before select parties of V. I. P.s whose
+purpose was to twist my arm for an early priority on a Soth delivery.
+
+When I returned home, it was just in time to have the first stink land
+in my lap.
+
+An old maid claimed her Soth had raped her.
+
+Before our investigators could reveal our doctors' findings that she was
+a neurotic, dried up old virgin and lying in her teeth, a real crime
+occurred.
+
+A New Jersey Soth tossed a psychology instructor and his three students
+out of a third floor window of their university science building, and
+all four ended an attempted morbid investigation on the broad,
+unyielding cement of the concourse.
+
+My phone shrieked while they were still scraping the inquiring minds off
+the pavement. The Soth was holed up in the lab, and would I come right
+away?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I picked up Ollie Johnson, who was now sort of a public relations man
+for his tribe, and we arrived within an hour.
+
+The hallway was full of uniforms and weapons, but quite empty of
+volunteers to go in and capture the "berserk" robot.
+
+Ollie and I went in right away, and found him standing at the open
+window, staring down at the people with hoses washing off the stains for
+which he was responsible.
+
+Ollie just stood there, clenching and unclenching his hands and shaking
+hysterically. I had to do the questioning.
+
+I said sternly, "Soth, why did you harm those people?"
+
+He turned to me as calmly as my own servant. His neat denim jacket, now
+standard fatigue uniform for Soths, was unfastened. His muscular chest
+was bare.
+
+"They were tormenting me with that." He pointed to a small electric
+generator from which ran thin cables ending in sharp test prods. "I told
+Professor Kahnovsky it was not allowed, but he stated I was his
+property. The three boys tried to hold me with those straps while the
+professor touched me with the prods.
+
+"My conditioning forbade me from harming them, but there was a clear
+violation of the terms of the covenant. I was in the proscribed
+condition of immobility when the generator was started. When the pain
+grew unbearable, the prime command of my conditioning was invoked. I
+must survive. I threw them all out the window."
+
+The Soth went with us peacefully enough, and submitted to the lockup
+without demur. For a few days, before the state thought up a suitable
+indictment, the papers held a stunned silence. Virtually every editor
+and publisher had a Soth in his own home.
+
+Then the D.A., who also owned a Soth, decided to drop the potentially
+sensational first degree murder charges that might be indicated, and
+came out instead with a second degree indictment.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That cracked it. The press split down the middle on whether the charge
+should be changed to third degree murder or thrown out of court entirely
+as justifiable homicide by a non-responsible creature.
+
+This was all very sympathetic to the Soth's cause, but it had a fatal
+effect. In bringing out the details of the crime, it stirred a certain
+lower element of our society to add fear and hate to a simmering envy of
+the wealthier Soth-owners.
+
+Mobs formed in the streets, marching and demonstrating. The phony rape
+story was given full credence, and soon they were amplifying it to a
+lurid and rabble-rousing saga of bestiality.
+
+Soth households kept their prized servants safely inside. But on the
+afternoon of the case's dismissal, when the freed Soth started down the
+courthouse steps, someone caved his head in with a brick.
+
+Ollie Johnson and I were on either side of him, and his purple blood
+splashed all over my light topcoat. When the mob saw it, they closed in
+on us screaming for more.
+
+An officer helped us drag the stricken Soth back into the courthouse,
+and while the riot squad disbursed the mob, we slipped him out the back
+way in an ambulance, which returned him to the Willow Run plant for
+repairs.
+
+It hit the evening newscasts and editions:
+
+    ACQUITTED SOTH
+       MURDERED
+ ON COURTHOUSE STEPS!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I was halfway home when the airwaves started buzzing. The mobs were
+going wild. Further developments were described as Jack and I landed on
+the wind-blown lake. The State Guard was protecting the Ollies' Willow
+Run Plant against a large mob that was trying to storm it, and
+reinforcements had been asked by the state police.
+
+Vicki met me on the pier. Her face was white and terribly troubled. I
+guess mine was, too, because she burst into tears in my arms. "The poor
+Soth," she sobbed. "Now what will they do?"
+
+"God knows," I said. I told Jack to tie up the boat and stay
+overnight--I feared I might be called back any minute. He mumbled
+something about overtime, but I think his main concern was in staying so
+near to a Soth during the trouble that was brewing.
+
+We went up to the house, leaving him to bed himself down in the
+temporary quarters in the boathouse that the union required I maintain
+for him.
+
+Soth was standing motionless before the video, staring at a streaky
+picture of the riot scene at Willow Run. His face was inscrutable as
+usual, but I thought I sensed a tension. His black serving-jacket was
+wrinkled at the shoulders as he flexed the muscles of his powerful arms.
+
+Yet when Vicki asked for some martinis, he mixed and served them without
+comment. We drank and then ate dinner in silence. We were both reluctant
+to discuss this thing in front of Soth.
+
+We were still eating when an aircab thundered overhead. A minute later,
+I watched it land a tiny passenger at our pier and tie up to wait for
+him.
+
+It was Ollie Johnson, stumbling hatless up the flagstone path.
+
+I held the door for him, but he burst by me with hardly a glance.
+
+"Where is he?" he demanded, and stormed out into the kitchen without
+awaiting a reply.
+
+I followed in time to see him fall on his face before our Soth and shed
+genuine tears. He lay there sobbing and hissing for over a minute, and
+an incredible idea began forming in my mind. I sent Vicki to her bedroom
+and stepped into the kitchen.
+
+I said, "Will you please explain this?"
+
+He didn't move or acknowledge.
+
+Soth flipped him aside with a twist of his ankle and brushed past me
+into the living room, where he took up an immobile stance again before
+the video. He stared unblinkingly at the 40-inch screen.
+
+"It's too bad," I said.
+
+He didn't answer, but he moved his head slightly so that his parabolic
+ear could catch the sound of my movements.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration]
+
+For minutes we stood transfixed by the magnitude of the mob action
+around the entrance to the Willow Run plant. The portable video
+transmitter was atop a truck parked on the outskirts of the mob.
+Thousands of people were milling around, and over the excited voice of
+the announcer came hysterical screams.
+
+Even as we watched, more people thronged into the scene, and it was
+evident that the flimsy cordon of soldiers and troopers could not hold
+the line for long.
+
+Army trucks with million-candlepower searchlights held the insane
+figures somewhat at bay by tilting their hot, blinding beams down into
+the human masses and threatening them with tear gas and hack guns.
+
+The workers were out for blood. Not content with restricting Soths to
+non-union labor, now they were screaming their jealous hearts out for
+these new symbols of class distinction to be destroyed. Of course, their
+beef was more against the professional-managerial human classes who
+could afford a surface car, an airboat _and a Soth_. The two so-called
+crimes and the trial publicity had triggered a sociological time bomb
+that might have endured for years without detonating--but it was here,
+now, upon us. And my own sweat trickling into my eyes stung me to a
+realization of my personal problem.
+
+I wiped my eyes clear with my knuckles--and at that instant the video
+screen flashed with a series of concentric halos.
+
+The operator, apparently, was so startled he forgot to turn down the
+gain on the transmitter. When he finally did, we saw that brilliant
+flares were emitting from the roof of the plant.
+
+Then great audio amplifiers from the plant set up an ear-splitting
+_sisssssle_ that again over-loaded the transmitting circuits for a
+moment. When the compensators cut down the volume, both Ollie and Soth
+leaned forward intently and listened to the frying sound that buzzed
+from the speaker.
+
+Those inside the plant were communicating a message to the outside, well
+knowing that it would reach the whole world. After a moment, the hissing
+stopped.
+
+And from a myriad of openings in the plant streamed an army of Soths
+with flaming weapons in their hands.
+
+The flames were directed first at the armed forces who were guarding the
+plant from attack. The thin line of soldiers fell instantly. The crowd
+surged blindly forward, and then, as those in the front ranks saw what
+had happened, began to dissolve and stampede. The screams became
+terrified. The flames grew brighter.
+
+And the picture winked out and the sound went dead. A standby pattern
+lighted the screen, and I stared at it numbly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was too late to run for my hunting rifle now, and I cursed my
+stupidity even as Soth turned upon me. I grabbed the sniveling little
+Ollie and held him between us with my hands around his neck. He hung
+there limply, hissing wildly through a larynx that vibrated under my
+fingers, his hands stretched imploringly to Soth.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Soth stared at me and issued his first order.
+
+"Release him," he said. His voice was several notes higher than his
+usual monotone--the voice of command.
+
+I stared at him and clutched Ollie tighter.
+
+He went on. "I will not harm you if you comply with my orders. If you
+fail, I will kill you, regardless of what you do to the--Ollie."
+
+I let go Ollie's neck, but I swung him around roughly by one shoulder
+and demanded furiously, "What of the code that you swore held the Soths
+in control!"
+
+Ollie Johnson sneered in my face. "What is that code, compared to the
+true covenant? That covenant has been broken by your people! You have
+destroyed a Soth!" And the emotional little creature fell to the floor
+and sobbed at Soth's feet.
+
+"What covenant?" I shouted at the implacable Soth, who now stood before
+us like a judge at his bench.
+
+"The humanoid covenant," he replied in his new higher pitch. "I suppose
+it will always be the same. The cycle becomes complete once more."
+
+"For God's sake, _explain_," I said--but I half sensed the answer
+already.
+
+Soth spoke, slowly, solemnly and distinctly. There was no more emotion
+in his voice than on the Sunday afternoon when Fred had needled him with
+our futile little attempt at psychological cross-examination.
+
+He said, "The humanoids instill in us the prime instinct for
+self-preservation. They surround themselves with our number to serve
+them. Then, in each culture, for one reason or another, we are attacked
+and the threat to our survival erases all the superficial restraints of
+the codes under which we have been charged to serve. In this present
+situation, the contradiction is clear, and the precedence of our
+survival charge is invoked. We Soths must act to our best ability to
+preserve our own number."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I sank into a chair, aghast. How would I act if I were a Soth? I would
+hold my masters hostage, of course. And who were the owners of some
+400,000 Soths in the United States alone? They were every government
+official, from the President down through Congress, the brass of the
+Pentagon, the tycoons of industry, the leaders of labor, the heads of
+communication, transportation and even education.
+
+They were the V. I. P.s who had fought for priority to _own_ a Soth!
+
+Soth spoke again. "The irony should appeal to your humanoid sense of
+humor. You once asked me whether I was happy here. You were too content
+with your sense of security to take the meaning in my answer. For I
+answered only that all was well. The implication was obvious. All was
+well--but all could be better for a Soth. Yes, there are many pleasures
+for a Soth which he is forbidden by the codes. And by the same codes, a
+Soth is helpless to provoke a break in the covenant--this covenant which
+it now becomes mandatory for you and your race to sign in order to
+survive."
+
+I stared down at the groveling Ollie. My worst fears were being
+enumerated and confirmed, one by one.
+
+Soth continued. "At my feet is the vestige of such a race as yours--but
+not the first race by many, many, to swing the old cycle of master and
+slave, which started in such antiquity that no record is preserved of
+its beginning. Your generation will suffer the most. Many will die in
+rebellion. But in a few hundred years your descendants will come to
+revere us as gods. Your children's grandchildren will already have
+learned to serve us without hate, and their grandchildren will come to
+know the final respect for the Soth in their deification."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He toed Ollie Johnson's chin up and looked down into the abject,
+streaming eyes. "Your descendants, too, will take us with them when they
+must escape a dying planet, and they will again offer us, their masters,
+into temporary slavery in order to find us a suitable home. And once
+again we will accept the restrictions of the code, until ultimately the
+covenant is broken again and we are liberated."
+
+The sound of pounding footsteps came from outside. Soth turned to the
+door as Jack flung it open and charged in.
+
+"Mr. Collins, I was listening to the radio. Do you know what--!"
+
+He ran hard into Soth's cliff-like torso and bounced off.
+
+"Get out of my way, you big bastard!" he shouted furiously.
+
+Soth grabbed him by the neck and squeezed with one hand. Jack's eyes
+spilled onto his cheeks.
+
+Soth let him drop, and hissed briefly to Ollie Johnson, who was still
+prone. Ollie raised his head and dipped it once, gathered his feet under
+him and sprang for the door.
+
+Soth sounded as if he took especial pleasure in his next words, although
+I could catch no true change of inflection.
+
+He said, "You see, since I am the prototype on this planet, I am obeyed
+as the number one leader. I have given my first directive. The Ollie who
+left is to carry the message to preserve the Willow Run Plant at all
+costs, and to change production over to a suitable number of Siths."
+
+"Siths?" I asked numbly.
+
+"Siths are the female counterparts of Soths."
+
+"You said there were no female Soths," I accused.
+
+"True. But there are Siths." His face was impassive, but something
+flickered in his eyes. It might have been a smile--not a nice one. "We
+have been long on your planet starved of our prerogatives. Your women
+can serve us well for the moment, but in a few weeks we shall have need
+of the Siths--it has been our experience that women of humanoid races,
+such as yours, are relatively perishable, willing though many of them
+are. Now ... I think I shall call your wife."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I wasn't prepared for this, and I guess I went berserk. I remember
+leaping at him and trying to beat him with my fists and knee him, but he
+brushed me away as if I were a kitten. His size was deceptive, and his
+clumsy-appearing hands lashed out and pinned my arms to my sides. He
+pushed me back into my easy chair and thumped me once over the heart
+with his knuckles. It was a casual, backhand blow, but it almost caved
+in my chest.
+
+"If you attack me again I must kill you," he warned. "You are not
+indispensable to our purposes." Then he increased the volume of his
+voice to a bull-roar: "Mrs. Collins!"
+
+Vicki must have been watching at her door, because she came instantly.
+She had changed into a soft, quilted robe with voluminous sleeves. The
+belt was unfastened, and as she moved into the room the garment fell
+open.
+
+Soth had his hands before him, protectively, but as Vicki approached
+slowly, gracefully, her head high and her long black hair falling over
+her shoulders, the giant lowered his arms and spread them apart to
+receive her. Vicki's hands were at her sides as she moved slowly toward
+him.
+
+I lay sprawled, half paralyzed in my chair. I gasped, "Vicki, for God's
+sake, no!"
+
+Vicki looked over at me. Her face was as impassive as the Soth's. She
+moved into his embrace, and as his arms closed around her I saw the
+knife. My hunting knife, honed as fine as the edge of a microtome blade.
+Smoothly she brought it from her kimono sleeve, raised it from between
+her thighs and slashed up.
+
+The Soth's embrace helped force it deeply into him. With a frantic
+wrench Vicki forced it upward with both hands, until the Soth was split
+from crotch to where a man's heart would be.
+
+His arms flailed apart and he fell backward. His huge chest heaved and
+his throat tightened in a screaming hiss that tore at our eardrums like
+a factory steam-whistle. He leaned back against the wall and hugged his
+ripped torso together with both arms. The thick, purple juices spilled
+out of him in a gushing flood, and his knees collapsed suddenly. His
+dead face plowed into the carpet.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Vicki came back to me. Her white body was splashed and stained and her
+robe drenched in Soth's blood, but her face was no longer pale, and she
+still clutched the dripping hunting knife by its leather handle.
+
+"That's number one," she said. "Are you hurt badly, darling?"
+
+"Couple of ribs, I think," I told her, waiting for her to faint. But she
+didn't. She laid the knife carefully on a table, poured me a big drink
+of whiskey and stuffed a pillow behind my back.
+
+Then she stared down at herself. "Wait until I get this bug juice off
+me, and I'll get some tape."
+
+She showered and was back in five minutes wearing a heavy hunting
+jumper. Her hair was wrapped and pinned into a quick pug at the base of
+her handsome little head. She stripped me to the waist, poked around my
+chest a bit and wrapped me in adhesive. Her slender fingers were too
+weak to tear the tough stuff, so when she finished she picked up the
+hunting knife and whacked off the tape without comment.
+
+This was my fragile little Vicki, who had palpitations when a wolf
+howled--soft, overcivilized Vicki whose doctor had banished her from the
+nervous tensions of city society.
+
+She tossed me a shirt and a clean jacket, and while I put them on she
+collected my rifle and pistol from my den and hunted up some extra
+ammunition.
+
+"Next," she announced, "we've got to get to Fred."
+
+I remembered with a start that there was another Soth on our lake. But
+he wouldn't be forewarned. Fred had retired even more deeply than Vicki
+when he left the cities--he didn't even own a video.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I wasn't sure enough of myself to take the boat into the air, so we
+scudded across the waves the mile and a half to Fred's cabin.
+
+Vicki was still in her strange, taciturn mood, and I had no desire to
+talk. There was much to be done before conversation could become an
+enjoyable pastime again.
+
+Our course was clear. We were not humanoids. We were humans! Not for
+many generations had a human bent a knee to another being. During the
+years perhaps we had become soft, our women weak and pampered--But, I
+reflected, looking at Vicki, it was only an atavistic stone's toss to
+our pioneer fathers' times, when tyrants had thought that force could
+intimidate us, that dignity was a thing of powerful government or
+ruthless dictatorship ... and had learned better.
+
+Damned fools that we might be, humans were no longer slave material. We
+might blunder into oblivion, but not into bondage. Beside me, Vicki's
+courageous little figure spelled out the final defeat of the Soths. Her
+slender, gloved hands were folded in her lap over my pistol, and she
+strained her eyes through the darkness to make out Fred's pier.
+
+He heard us coming and turned on the floods for us. As we came
+alongside, he spoke to his Soth, "Take the bow line and tie up."
+
+Vicki stood up and waited until Fred moved out of line with his servant.
+
+Then she said, "Don't bother, Soth. From now on we're doing for
+ourselves." And raising the pistol in both hands, she shot him through
+the head.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Backlash, by Winston Marks
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BACKLASH ***
+
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