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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/32828-8.txt b/32828-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1127eda --- /dev/null +++ b/32828-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1601 @@ +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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** 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 blasé. "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 *** + +***** This file should be named 32828-8.txt or 32828-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/8/2/32828/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan 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: Backlash + +Author: Winston Marks + +Illustrator: SIBLEY + +Release Date: June 15, 2010 [EBook #32828] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BACKLASH *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h1>BACKLASH</h1> + +<h2>By WINSTON MARKS</h2> + +<h3>Illustrated by SIBLEY</h3> + +<p>[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.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="sidenote">They were the perfect servants—they were willing to do +everything for nothing. The obvious question is: How much is nothing?</div> + + +<p>I still feel that the ingratiating little runts never <i>intended</i> any +harm. They were eager to please, a cinch to transact business with, and +constantly, everlastingly grateful to us for giving them asylum.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>and</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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, <i>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</i>.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<p>Johnson—<i>Ollie</i> 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.</p> + +<p>As he stood in the doorway of my office, my first visual impression was +of an emaciated adolescent, seasick green, prematurely balding.</p> + +<p>He bowed, and bowed again, and spent thirty seconds reminding me that it +was <i>he</i> who had sought the interview, and it was <i>he</i> who had the big +favors to ask—and it was wonderful, gracious, generous <i>I</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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Ollies</i>. When they got excited and +blushed, they came close to the color of a ripe olive; and this was +often.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Ollie Johnson hissed a few times, his equivalent of throat-clearing, and +then lunged into his subject at a 90 degree tangent:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"If it's legal and there's a buck in it, can't see any reason why not," +I told him.</p> + +<p>"You manufacture and distribute devices, I am told. Wonderful +labor-saving mechanisms that make life on Earth a constant pleasure."</p> + +<p>I was almost tempted to hire him for my public relations staff.</p> + +<p>"We do," I admitted. "Servo-mechanisms, appliances and gadgets of many +kinds for the home, office and industry."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<div class="figright"> +<img src="images/illus4.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<p>"That was tough," I said. "But what's on your mind now?"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>He begged my permission to show me something in the outer waiting room. +With more than casual interest, I assented.</p> + +<p>He moved obsequiously to the door, opened it and spoke to someone beyond +my range of vision. His words sounded like a repetition of +"<i>sissle-flissle</i>." Then he stepped aside, fastened his little wet eyes +on me expectantly, and waited.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"They don't look it," I said. "And what do you mean by <i>you</i> humanoids? +What's he?"</p> + +<p>"You would call him—a robot, I believe."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You mean you—you <i>make</i> these people?" I gasped.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>I got up and walked around the big lunker, trying to look blasé. "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."</p> + +<p>That was the understatement of my career.</p> + +<p>I finally pulled my face together, and said as casually as I could, +"Would you like to license us to manufacture these—Soths?"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"No imposition at all," I assured him.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>I studied the magnificent piece of animated sculpturing, stunned at the +possibilities. "You say a Soth is strong. How strong?"</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"Have you figured how much one of these Soths should sell for?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Servant?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"A magnificent specimen like this doing <i>housework</i>?" I marveled at the +little creature's empty-headedness.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>But for some reason, I couldn't escape the feeling that I'd been had.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Just then Soth emerged from the boat with our whole week's supply of +foodstuffs and assorted necessities bundled under his long arms.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear God, a dinner guest!" Vicki exclaimed. Tears started into her +reproachful eyes and her slender little figure stiffened in my arms.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I swung her around, hooked arms with her and Fred, and started up the +path.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"A robot!" Fred said, and both their heads swiveled to stare back.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>I didn't want to say, <i>make sure he's safe</i>. Not in Vicki's presence. +But Fred caught my eye and nodded.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Fred was making drinks when I returned to the living room.</p> + +<p>"Looks docile enough, Cliff," he told me.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>There were nervous whitecaps on Vicki's drink.</p> + +<p>I patted her shoulder. "I'll break him into the housekeeping routine, +honey. You won't have him staring over your shoulder."</p> + +<p>She tried to relax. "But he's so quiet—and big!"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>Fred looked at me with a raised eyebrow and said, "Well, let's find +out."</p> + +<p>We sat down and called Soth into the living room. He came and stood +before us, erect, poised and motionless.</p> + +<p>Fred said, "Disrobe. Remove all your clothing. Strip!"</p> + +<p>Vicki sucked in her breath.</p> + +<p>The Soth replied instantly, "Your order conflicts with my conditioning. +I must not remove my covering in the presence of an Earthwoman."</p> + +<p>Fred scratched his gray temple thoughtfully. "Then, Vicki, would you +mind disrobing, please?"</p> + +<p>She gulped again. Fred was an old friend, but not exactly the family +doctor.</p> + +<p>He sensed her mild outrage. "You'll never stop wondering if you don't," +he said.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figright"> +<img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Why did you leave?" Fred demanded.</p> + +<p>"I am not permitted to remain in the company of an uncovered +Earthwoman ... unless she directs me to do so."</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>"Many."</p> + +<p>"Recount some of them."</p> + +<p>"An Earthwoman may not be touched, regardless of her wishes, unless +danger to her life requires it."</p> + +<p>"Looks like you wash your own back, Vicki," I chuckled.</p> + +<p>"What else?" she asked, poking her head out. "I mean what other things +can't you do?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Fred whistled. "The Ollies have mastered more than our language ... I +thought you said they were noted mainly for their linguistic talents, +Cliff."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I said, "Satisfied, Vicki?"</p> + +<p>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...."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Think he's safe, do you?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"What?" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I went back to the house and cornered Soth out in the kitchen alone. +Vicki had him polishing all the antique silverware.</p> + +<p>"Are there female Soths?" I asked point-blank.</p> + +<p>He looked down at me with that relaxed, pink look and said, "No, Mr. +Collins," and went back to his polishing.</p> + +<p>The damned liar. He knew what I meant. He justified himself on a +technicality.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Vicki bragged as she undressed that she had the giant hog-tied and +jumping through hoops.</p> + +<p>"We even got half the excavation done for the rock wall," she said +proudly.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He opened his eyes as I came in, but didn't stir.</p> + +<p>"Are you happy here?" I asked bluntly.</p> + +<p>He sat up and did something new. He answered my question with a +question. "Are you happy with my services?"</p> + +<p>I said, "Yes, of course."</p> + +<p>"Then all is well," he replied simply, and lay down again.</p> + +<p>It seemed like a satisfactory answer. He radiated a feeling of peace, +and the expression of repose on his heavy features was assuring.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>We flew blind through filthy weather all the way to Detroit. I dismissed +Jack with orders to return at eleven with Soth.</p> + +<p>"Don't be late," I warned him.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The directors were charmed, impressed and enthusiastic.</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>I nodded emphatically.</p> + +<p>"Then put me down for three for sure," he said with executive finality.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"How soon," I asked Ollie Johnson, "can you begin deliveries?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>One of the officers asked, "Is your process entirely biological? You +mentioned cultures."</p> + +<p>For a moment, I thought Ollie Johnson was going to break out in tears. +His face twisted.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>What none of us understood right then was that the Ollies were hiring +us, not the other way around.</p> + +<p>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 <i>any</i> offer for our Soth. He's one of +the family now, eh, Soth, old boy?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mrs. Collins," he said, not a trace more nor less aloof than +usual.</p> + +<p>"Oops, sorry!" Vicki apologized. "I forgot. The code."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>And I knew something about Soth that she didn't. Something that +apparently hadn't bothered her mind since the day of her striptease.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Before they left, all three union men placed orders for household Soths.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>When I returned home, it was just in time to have the first stink land +in my lap.</p> + +<p>An old maid claimed her Soth had raped her.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I picked up Ollie Johnson, who was now sort of a public relations man +for his tribe, and we arrived within an hour.</p> + +<p>The hallway was full of uniforms and weapons, but quite empty of +volunteers to go in and capture the "berserk" robot.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Ollie just stood there, clenching and unclenching his hands and shaking +hysterically. I had to do the questioning.</p> + +<p>I said sternly, "Soth, why did you harm those people?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It hit the evening newscasts and editions:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">ACQUITTED SOTH<br /></span> +<span class="i0">MURDERED<br /></span> +<span class="i0">ON COURTHOUSE STEPS!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was Ollie Johnson, stumbling hatless up the flagstone path.</p> + +<p>I held the door for him, but he burst by me with hardly a glance.</p> + +<p>"Where is he?" he demanded, and stormed out into the kitchen without +awaiting a reply.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I said, "Will you please explain this?"</p> + +<p>He didn't move or acknowledge.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It's too bad," I said.</p> + +<p>He didn't answer, but he moved his head slightly so that his parabolic +ear could catch the sound of my movements.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figright"> +<img src="images/illus5.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>and a Soth</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>I wiped my eyes clear with my knuckles—and at that instant the video +screen flashed with a series of concentric halos.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Then great audio amplifiers from the plant set up an ear-splitting +<i>sisssssle</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>And from a myriad of openings in the plant streamed an army of Soths +with flaming weapons in their hands.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>And the picture winked out and the sound went dead. A standby pattern +lighted the screen, and I stared at it numbly.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<p>Soth stared at me and issued his first order.</p> + +<p>"Release him," he said. His voice was several notes higher than his +usual monotone—the voice of command.</p> + +<p>I stared at him and clutched Ollie tighter.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What covenant?" I shouted at the implacable Soth, who now stood before +us like a judge at his bench.</p> + +<p>"The humanoid covenant," he replied in his new higher pitch. "I suppose +it will always be the same. The cycle becomes complete once more."</p> + +<p>"For God's sake, <i>explain</i>," I said—but I half sensed the answer +already.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>They were the V. I. P.s who had fought for priority to <i>own</i> a Soth!</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>I stared down at the groveling Ollie. My worst fears were being +enumerated and confirmed, one by one.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>The sound of pounding footsteps came from outside. Soth turned to the +door as Jack flung it open and charged in.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Collins, I was listening to the radio. Do you know what—!"</p> + +<p>He ran hard into Soth's cliff-like torso and bounced off.</p> + +<p>"Get out of my way, you big bastard!" he shouted furiously.</p> + +<p>Soth grabbed him by the neck and squeezed with one hand. Jack's eyes +spilled onto his cheeks.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Soth sounded as if he took especial pleasure in his next words, although +I could catch no true change of inflection.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"Siths?" I asked numbly.</p> + +<p>"Siths are the female counterparts of Soths."</p> + +<p>"You said there were no female Soths," I accused.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I lay sprawled, half paralyzed in my chair. I gasped, "Vicki, for God's +sake, no!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"That's number one," she said. "Are you hurt badly, darling?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>Then she stared down at herself. "Wait until I get this bug juice off +me, and I'll get some tape."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Next," she announced, "we've got to get to Fred."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>Vicki stood up and waited until Fred moved out of line with his servant.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Backlash, by Winston Marks + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BACKLASH *** + +***** This file should be named 32828-h.htm or 32828-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/8/2/32828/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan 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: 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 *** + +***** This file should be named 32828.txt or 32828.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/8/2/32828/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan 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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