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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..88e10b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #69042 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69042) diff --git a/old/69042-0.txt b/old/69042-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 931226a..0000000 --- a/old/69042-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2010 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Potemkin village, by Fletcher Pratt - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Potemkin village - -Author: Fletcher Pratt - -Release Date: September 24, 2022 [eBook #69042] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POTEMKIN VILLAGE *** - - - - - - POTEMKIN VILLAGE - - A Novelet by FLETCHER PRATT - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Startling Stories, February 1953. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - I - - -Director Unterbaum of the Intercolonial Office rose from his chair as -the pair came in. "I take it you haven't met before?" he said. "Mr. and -Mrs. Lanzerotti, this is Ann Starnes, the recording photographer, and -Robert Heidekopfer, one of our better writers." - -There were smiles and acknowledgments. Unterbaum touched a pair of -buttons on his desk and two chairs slid out of the walls to make a -group of five. "Sit down, please," he said. "Now I'm not going to mince -words. The reason you're here is because the Council wants you--three -of you, at least--to undertake a mission. Vincent--" he indicated -Lanzerotti, who nodded a dark head--"already knows something about it, -but for the benefit of Miss Starnes and Mr. Heidekopfer, I will say -that we want to send you to Tolstoia." - -Heidekopfer smiled and said, "Sounds better than that trip to the polar -mines on Mars, eh Ann?" - -"Warmer, anyhow," said the girl, turning a carefully-kept blonde head. -"But I thought Tolstoia was closed to visitors." - -"The patriarch has agreed to let a delegation in for this visit," said -Unterbaum, "so we can render a fair and unbiased report on Tolstoia, -in word, picture and observation. The point is this; there are some -islands about three hundred miles off the coast of Tolstoia, between it -and South Bergenland--the Wrightley Islands. They have no resources, -but Tolstoia wants to colonize them." He touched buttons again, and a -map appeared on the wall showing the almost-round shape of the island -nation, with the islands and the tip of South Bergenland at the right. - -Unterbaum went on: "They're uninhabited, so there isn't any objection -from the Demographic Commission, although it's unusual for one of the -hermit-states to expand. But there are certain features of the request -that make the Council inclined to go slow; or at least to want more -information." - -He stopped, seeming to wait for a question, so Heidekopfer asked it. -"What are they?" - - * * * * * - -Lanzerotti answered, "To begin with, the place was founded in -accordance with the philosophy of Count Leo Tolstoi, a Russian -writer of some centuries back. The Russians discovered that a sect -of people who believed in his ideas was growing up in their country, -and considered it a threat to the organization of their state. They -couldn't dispose of the Tolstoians under the genocide laws, so they -appealed to the Council and it agreed to expatriate all the Tolstoians -the Russians could identify." - -"Then it was a penal colony, like the Moon mines?" inquired Heidekopfer. - -"No," said Lanzerotti. "As a matter of fact, when the announcement was -made, the Tolstoians came forward in numbers and identified themselves. -But they thought they were going to have a reservation set apart for -them in Russia itself, and when they found they were going to an island -on Venus, there was a certain amount of resentment." - -"Do you think it still exists? That if they're allowed to get hold of -the islands, they'll do something drastic--say start a war?" - -"Not after all these years," said Lanzerotti. "It's nearly three -centuries, and national resentments don't last that long without -something to feed on. Besides, pacifism was one of Tolstoi's doctrines." - -"Then what are we supposed to look for?" - -Lanzerotti spread his hands. "We don't know. That's what's worrying -the Diplomatic Division. Asking for more territory indicates a rising -birth-rate, but the kind of territory they're asking for doesn't -promise a rise serious enough to worry the Demographic Commission. We -don't consider it likely that Tolstoianism has become militant. But to -be honest, we just don't know." - -Ann Starnes smiled. "It sounds like hunting for a needle in a haystack -when you don't even know whether there's any needle," she said. - -"On the contrary," said Unterbaum, "we're fairly certain there is a -needle, and a sharp one. What we need to know is what kind of needle it -is before someone gets stuck with it. Listen--" He snapped up one of -the lids in his desk and spun a wheel of recording tape. "Planes aren't -allowed to land in Tolstoia, of course, but every once in a while -one comes down there, and occasionally a yacht or fishing-craft gets -wrecked on the coast. Now the normal procedure in such a case with a -hermit-state is that they hold survivors and notify someone to come and -get them. They stopped doing that about eighty years ago." - -"What do you mean?" said Heidekopfer. "Stopped notifying or stopped -rescuing survivors?" - -"It isn't quite certain," said Unterbaum, "but here's the sequence, -such as it is. Seventy-eight years ago Bernard Jones and his wife -disappeared while on a flight from MacNider to South Bergenland." He -indicated the map. "You see, that would carry them close to Tolstoia. -Three months later one of the fishing vessels, which are the only form -of communication the Tolstoians have, turned up at MacNider. It had -a letter from Mrs. Jones. She said her husband had died in a crash -landing, and she was staying in Tolstoia with the permission of the -authorities." - -"Anything wrong about that?" asked Heidekopfer. - -"There's nothing wrong with any of this," said Unterbaum, "at least as -far as that instance goes. It's other things. Nothing has been heard of -Mrs. Jones since. Seventy-six years ago, a musician named Bruno Zaleski -went on a yachting trip in the South Ocean with a party of three. They -never came back. After the usual interval letters came through from -all of them. They said they found Tolstoia a Venusian paradise and were -going to stay. Zaleski was heard from again. At the time of the next -incident, one year later, his brother received a letter telling how -happy he was." - - * * * * * - -He paused for a moment. "The incident sixty-seven years ago was the -beginning of a new series. It concerned a man named Walter Artem, -another plane case. Like Jones, he disappeared. One of the Tolstoian -fishing-craft brought him back, but he was dead. They had preserved his -body carefully. I'll show you the picture." - -He touched the stud and the watchers found themselves gazing at a -coffin, partly glassed so the occupant was visible to the waist. Rose -Lanzerotti gave a little cry and with reason, for the face within was -peculiarly horrible; bloated and suffused with blood, the neck swelling -out over a clearly visible rope. - -"They explained he had hanged himself," Unterbaum continued. - -"I have a question," said Ann Starnes. "Why did they go to all the -trouble of preserving him just the way he died? It sounds as though -they were afraid somebody might get suspicious." - -"That's what I thought," said Unterbaum. "But there's an explanation. -The records show that the Tolstoians, even while they were in Russia, -showed a peculiar reverence for their dead when they were important -people. It's a hold-over from their twentieth century leader Lenin. -They preserve bodies this way so they're visible. The explanation -that came with Artem's body was that the Tolstoians didn't know how -important he was, but thought he might be big enough to deserve -preservative treatment." - -"Polite of them," murmured Lanzerotti. - -"Very," said Unterbaum. "Almost too polite. Because it was -repeated--since Artem there have been six cases of castaways on -Tolstoia committing suicide and being delivered at MacNider in -preserved form." - -"All hangings?" asked Heidekopfer. - -"No. One stabbing, three shootings, two overdoses of soporifics. There -are autopsy records on those, and they're legitimate." - -"Seems a high proportion of suicides among the castaways," said -Heidekopfer. "Can anything be made of that?" - -"Nobody seemed to think so," said Unterbaum. "Seven suicides out of a -given group over a period of eighty years isn't much, after all. The -thing that stirred up our office was the discovery that in the past -eighty years not one castaway has come back alive. They've either been -crated out as suicides or sent through letters saying they have decided -to become citizens of Tolstoia." - -He paused a moment to let that sink in. "A number of these cases are -rather special. There was Carmenilla Baio, forty-four years ago. She -was a video dancer on a flight from MacNider to South Bergenland. Sent -out the usual letter saying she had decided her future lay in Tolstoia, -and followed it with another one a couple of years later. That's -ordinary enough, but the case made the news, and when we went through -the records, we found that when she disappeared she had been married -only three months and was passionately devoted to her husband. Her -second letter was written in a kind of code, and asked him to fake an -accident and join her there." - -"Did he?" asked Ann Starnes. - -"Any possibility of forgery in those letters?" asked Heidekopfer at the -same time. - -Unterbaum turned to the girl. "No to your question. As for the other -one, Carmenilla Baio's private code was certainly no forgery." - -Heidekopfer said, "It appears that the Tolstoians compel them to stay -there, and if they argue, bump them off. Is that it?" - -"That would be a charge of genocide. I do not think--" began Lanzerotti. - -"I don't either," said Unterbaum. "The Tolstoians wouldn't expose -themselves to such a thing, especially in view of their origins. No, -I'm convinced they have been quite honest, leaning over backward--as -witness the preserved suicides--but there's some factor in the equation -we don't know. And I won't deny that there's danger in the trip." - -"Then I'm going," said Rosa Lanzerotti, decisively. She was a small -woman with vivid Italiote coloring. - -Ann Starnes said, "Might as well square the party off, hadn't we? It -would be nice to have someone to handle the recording tapes and films." - -Unterbaum frowned. "The Intercolonial Office--" he began. - -Lanzerotti said, "I believe that psychologists recognize it as a -temperamental danger to send two men and one woman on a protracted -expedition." - -"I ought to know better than to argue with a diplomat," said Unterbaum. - - - - - II - - -The low spit guarding the harbor entrance was only a slightly deeper -blue than the water and perpetual overcast of Venus. Captain Ratterman -sighed, reported "No charts," and spoke into the communicator, "Cut -speed to eight knots, use full automatics on the bottom sonics," -then he turned to the pair beside him on the bridge. "I'm not being -inhospitable. In fact, you're welcome to stay as long as you please. -But it's fair to warn you that we won't be docking for another three -hours." - -"We love your company," said Ann Starnes, but Heidekopfer picked at her -arm, and led her toward the gangway. When they had reached the low, -flat bow with the water whispering softly beneath, he said, "How about -it, Ann? Why not marry me now and save trouble? You're going to anyway, -some day, and it might be a protection here." - -She put a hand over one of his. "No, Bob. Not now. I'll give you -first place on the list, but I'm not going to marry you--or anybody -else--until I'm something more than a failure." - -"You're no failure. The fact that you were selected for this job proves -it." - -"Just a competent mechanical photographer, Bob--you needn't tell me. -I was picked because I had worked with you before, and your work is -important." - -"Look ..." he started to say, then let it trail off. They had argued -the point so often it was like another trip on a merry-go-round. Ann -said, "I don't want to be just a wife, like Rosa Lanzerotti." - -He moved. "Do you think she's--a failure?" - -"No-o. Not within her own dimension. It just isn't mine. I want to be -something more important than a good mechanical photographer." - -"Did it ever occur to you--" he began, and let it trail off as he -watched a formation of the odd Venusian batfish soar from the water -under the bow and sweep overhead to dive again in perfect alignment. -The ship swung. The long blue tongue of land came round on their right -and the harbor opened before them. There was a little grove of masts at -its depth clustered around what seemed to be docks, but he saw no town -on the shore behind. - -"Think you can handle the language all right now?" asked Ann, a note of -banter in her question. - -"If there hasn't been too much development in it since Tolstoia was -closed off. Communications thought a good many special terms might -have developed. What worries me more is the system of ideas. You were -lucky, not having to study Tolstoi. He had a philosophy, all right, but -I can't conceive how it could be translated into a practical method of -living, and neither can Vincent. Unless we do understand, it's going to -be hard to present a sympathetic picture." - -"Photos are always sympathetic," said Ann. "The question is, do we want -to be? Let's go down and have a cup of coffee. The betting is there -won't be any where we're going." - -The other two were in the cabin and the cup of coffee lasted until a -cessation of movement and a slight bump indicated they had arrived. -There was a bustle of gathering luggage; they went topside to find -the gangplank already laid to a dilapidated dock with holes in the -planking, alongside which little Tolstoian fishing-craft rose and -fell rhythmically to the swell. At the shore end of the dock a little -group of men in embroidered white smocks with square caps on their -heads looked on with an air of complete uninterest as the ambassadors -disbarked. There were four droshkies behind them; a house was visible -among drooping-branched Venusian trees. - - * * * * * - -Ann set her camera to automatic and hooked it to her belt as Lanzerotti -led the way along the dock. Three of the men detached themselves from -the group and waited. As the ambassadors approached, one of them -clasped his hands together, said, "Behrmann, Andrei Pavlich" and took -a step back. "Vikhranov, Nicolai Leonovich," said the second, and the -third, "Kazetzky, Pyotr Ilyich." He was a tall man, with a long, hooked -nose and an expression of deep melancholy. - -Lanzerotti stepped forward. "We are the representatives of the -Interplanetary Council," he said. "My name is Vincent Lanzerotti with -the rank of ambassador. This is Mrs. Lanzerotti, and Miss Starnes, our -photographer and Mr. Heidekopfer, the official observer. We have a good -deal of baggage." - -The three looked at each other. Behrmann was a short man with a broad -Slavic face. He said, "Bring it forward. Transportation has been -provided to the seat of the patriarch." - -Heidekopfer remembered that somewhere in Tolstoi there was something -about not waiting on other people; also, that he was not going to have -as much difficulty with the language as he had feared. Behrmann's -accent was a little funny, but he put his sentences together in the -classical manner and with the right words. The sailors were loading -their baggage onto power-dollies. Vikhranov said, "The ambassador will -take the first droshky, with myself and Pyotr Ilyich. Andrei Pavlich -will accompany you in the second." He waved a hand toward Ann and -Heidekopfer. - -As their guides led the way toward the vehicles, Heidekopfer said, "One -thing surprises me, if you don't mind a snap judgment. I would have -expected to find more of a city around your port." - -Behrmann turned his head with a smile. "We have no cities," he said. -"They are destroyers of nature, and without communion with nature there -is no happiness." - -That was good Tolstoi, all right, thought Heidekopfer, and said to -Ann, "They don't take very good care of their roads here, do they?" - -"I should say not--and my mud-shedders are all nicely packed in -the baggage, too." She lifted a neatly clad foot that was already -plentifully marked with black Venusian mire. "Their trees are nice, -though, and look how even the rows in that field are." She aimed the -camera at it for a moment, and spoke to Behrmann in Russian; "Where are -the fishermen for the boats?" - -"Oh, this is Thursday," he said, standing aside so she could get in the -droshky. "On this day they work in the fields. It is good to work in -the fields, and we have a law that all who follow other forms of work -shall do so for one day a week." - -"That's not a bad law for an agricultural community," observed -Heidekopfer. "I suppose you are practically all agriculture? But -what do you do for manufactured articles--like shoes and glass and -newspapers?" - -In the droshka ahead Vikhranov raised his hand; both drivers -shouted something like "Ya-ya!" simultaneously, cracked their whips -tremendously, and the procession was off along a dirt road in a -decidedly poor state of repair. - -"I am not sure I understand your question," said Behrmann. "Shoes or -glass, when we want them we make them. As for newspapers, they are -forbidden by the word of the Master. I know there must be such things, -because they are mentioned, but I have never seen one and do not really -know what they are." - - * * * * * - -The road had begun to rise toward a cut in a range of low hills. -"Uh-huh," said Heidekopfer, "and I suppose radio falls under the -prohibition on newspapers. Well, let me put it this way; suppose -someone had an idea for a new kind of machine. Would he have to make -all the parts himself?" - -"There is a law against machines. They interfere with simplicity." - -"But doesn't anyone ever have an idea for a machine so brilliant that -he simply has to make it in spite of the law?" - -"How could he? It is against the law." - -"Do you mean that the law here is always obeyed?" - -"Always. That is the superiority of Tolstoia to all other peoples. -Those who come to our happy country by accident never wish to leave -when they find that through the doctrines of the Master we have -established the brotherhood of men." - -Ann gave a little giggle. "I know," said Heidekopfer rapidly in -English, "I think we can take that with a cellar full of salt." He -switched to Russian; "Then you have no crime?" - -"In our happy country?" said Behrmann. "No. Look how beautiful is the -arrangement of the cows in that field?" - -Heidekopfer sighed. Then he said, "Tell me something about the -government of your country. I don't want to be too inquisitive, but I -have to report on these things when I get back." - -Behrmann's face flashed a frown. "It is hard to explain this to an -outsider, but we know of what you call government only from the works -of the Master, who spoke of it as it was in the old days, in the old -Russia, the holy Russia." He lifted a hand to his face, and Heidekopfer -was dumbfounded to see the man was wiping away a tear. "There is the -patriarch, but he is only the general secretary of the Supreme Soviet." - -"Well, who makes the laws?" - -"The Supreme Soviet." - -"How are they elected--or chosen?" - -"We all agree on them." - -Heidekopfer was saved from going mad by a cry from Ann Starnes. They -had passed through the cut into the hills and now, as they swung -round the brow of one, a wide valley lay spread before them under the -soft Venusian light. It was dotted with little clumps of trees and -had houses here and there, mostly low and with curiously bound-down -thatched roofs. With the green fields and grazing animals, it made -a scene of truly pastoral beauty. Ann said, "Tell him to stop for a -minute, will you? I want to get this." - -Behrmann looked at Heidekopfer. "Is it your will also that we stop?" - -"Sure, why not," said he. "Isn't even necessary to ask if the -girl-friend wants it. Do you have a law about women getting permission -for what they want to do, too?" - -"No. Stop, Pavel Josephovitch." He turned to Heidekopfer; "But the will -of one must become the will of all." - -"Now I don't understand," said Heidekopfer, as Ann adjusted her camera -to take a sweeping panorama of the valley. "Would you mind explaining?" - -"In happy Tolstoia when the desire of one person would cause others -to do what they might not desire, all must agree before it is done. -To allow anything else would be compulsion, and as the Master says; -'Anything that savors of compulsion is harmful.'" - -"I can see where there must be some prize family arguments in happy -Tolstoia," said Ann, in English. "Would I like to be married to a man -if I had to get his agreement every time I wanted to buy a new hat? No." - -"If you'll marry me you won't have to--" began Heidekopfer, but -Behrmann was speaking again: - -"It was not always so. When our people came from holy Russia, they were -like others on earth, with only the desire for universal brotherhood -and the writings of the Master to guide them. But there was so much -love among them and they obeyed the law so well that a hundred -thirty-one of our years ago, brotherhood was attained and the will of -all became the will of the one. Now it is possible for us to extend the -privilege of agreement to outsiders. This is why none who have felt it -wish to leave." - - * * * * * - -By this time, they had almost caught up to the leading droshky, which -was just turning into a tree-lined alley at the end of which stood -quite the largest house they had yet seen. It had two stories and a -couple of jutting wings beside the central door. "This where we're -going?" asked Ann. - -"The residence of the Patriarch Pitrim Androvich Samsonov," said -Behrmann, with the sonorous accents of one who is aware of saying -something impressive. - -The others got out and waited for them. When they had assembled -Vikhranov led the procession, opening the door himself, and they found -themselves in a neat hall with whitewashed walls and plain chairs -standing against them. The light from the door was helped out by a -couple of candles in bracket holders on the wall. Vikhranov said, "You -will wait here," and turned through a door to the right. It could not -have been more than a couple of minutes before a tall, strong man -came out, wiping his hands on his smock, as though he had just been -interrupted in something. Heidekopfer experienced an almost physical -shock at the emanation of personality that seemed to flow from him. He -might equally have been a general or a prophet, but either way there -was no doubting that if he wanted somebody to do something, they would -probably do it. Ann too was affected. She lifted her camera and let -the photographing light play on the patriarch, but he moved his head -slightly, the light went out and she put the camera back to her belt, -an expression of awe suffusing her face. - -Vikhranov said, "Little Father, these are the ambassadors from the -Council. They did not tell me their names." - -Lanzerotti gave him a peculiar look and said, "I am the ambassador and -my name is Lanzerotti. This is--" - -The big man lifted a hand. "It is good for simplicity to address all -persons by their patronymics," he said. "Mine is Pitrim Androvich." -Instead of looking at Lanzerotti he was, staring fixedly at Ann. - -"Oh, I see," said the diplomat. "Well by that system, I suppose -you'd have to call me Vincent Guidovich. And this is my wife, -Rosa--uh--Mariovna." - -Heidekopfer and Ann similarly identified themselves. Samsonov said, "We -will show you your rooms. Is it your custom to change the clothes after -travelling?" - -Rosa Lanzerotti spoke for the group, "I think I'd like to change my -shoes at least. They got rather muddy." - -Samsonov turned to Kazetzky: "Pyotr Ilyich, will you and the -horse-drivers bring the baggage of the ambassadors to the rooms in the -west wing, in the name of the Master? There is a special law that this -service may be performed for them." - -He reached out a hand, calmly took one of Ann's, and began to lead her -along the hall toward a door on the opposite side. There didn't seem to -be anything to do but follow. - -"Do you have any children?" said Samsonov, as he turned down a corridor -at right angles to the first. "It is Nature's way of life for women to -have children." - -Ann laughed. "I'm afraid not yet. I'm going to leave that until after -I'm married." - -"It is not against our law for women to have children before." Still -holding the girl's hand, he touched a door. "This room will belong to -you, Vincent Guidovich." - -The next was for Heidekopfer. The opened door showed a clean, plain -room with Venusian yellow poppies in a vase on a writing table, a bed -and a washstand with a pitcher of water. The walls were bare and there -didn't seem to be any plumbing. Outside the baggage was arriving. -Heidekopfer claimed his own, unpacked and put on a pair of clean shoes, -and went out to find Ann's door open and the girl engaged in a similar -task. - -He grumbled, "If that big bruiser keeps on making such a play for you, -it's going to be bad for international relations." - -She laughed. "He said he loved me--but in the brotherhood of man, -everyone must love everyone else. Then he let me take his picture. -Let's go check with the Lanzerottis before going to the audience." She -stood up. - - - - - III - - -Lanzerotti was zipping open a bottle-container. "Well, Robert -Murrayovich, first impressions." - -"About what I would have expected from a regime founded on the ideas of -Tolstoi," said Heidekopfer, "and a rather screwy set-up. But my general -impression was not unfavorable. They seem to be running the place with -a decent respect for human values and each other." - -"'The will of all is the will of one,'" quoted Lanzerotti. "Did they -say that to you, too?" He took a couple of bottles of champagne from -the container. "I'm going to give our hosts a treat. It never hurts in -opening diplomatic negotiations. I suppose it's too early to ask yet, -but you didn't run onto anything that might be a clue to why we aren't -getting the castaways back?" - -"Nothing that you'd call a clue, but something that might have -a connection. Our guide told us that Tolstoia had attained the -brotherhood of man a hundred thirty-one Venus years ago. That's -eighty-one earth years, and strikes awful close to the date when -Unterbaum said the disappearances began." - -"Even so," said Ann, "I can't see a whole group of people who have been -brought up in civilization giving it up for this." She swept her hand -around the room, which was as bare as the others. "Especially that -dancer he mentioned." - -"A point," conceded Lanzerotti. "Shall we go?" - -He led the way back to the main hall. The door from which Samsonov had -emerged stood open, and there was a wide table in the room beyond, laid -with an array of dishes which held any number of hors d'oeuvres, while -eight or nine men and women were gathered about Samsonov. "You know -your Russian customs, all right," Heidekopfer murmured to Lanzerotti as -the patriarch came forward. - -He explained that these were the central committee of the Supreme -Soviet; there were introductions and Lanzerotti presented his -champagne, which Heidekopfer had to open because none of the Tolstoians -seemed to know how. - -Vikhranov said admiringly, "How beautiful is the play of bubbles in -this beverage!" as the ambassador lifted his glass, saying, "To the -future of Tolstoia!" bowed to Samsonov and drank. - -The patriarch's return bow was a trifle stiff, but he sipped--and -immediately appeared to become the victim of a revolution, spitting the -champagne on the floor and coughing with bulging eyes, while the others -gathered round him with expressions of sympathy. After a moment of -gasping recovery, he pushed them aside and said to Lanzerotti, "I taste -alcohol! Is it not so?" - -"To be sure," said the ambassador. "You can't very well make champagne -without it. Please accept my sincerest apologies for offering it to you -if it offends you, however." - -"We have a law against it in Tolstoia! The drinking of alcohol leads to -failure to recognize the brotherhood of man!" - -Heidekopfer said to Ann, "They had a law against alcohol in America -once, too, but as far as I can remember, it didn't keep people from -drinking." - -"Hush," she said, "I like to watch the way he holds his head." - - * * * * * - -Her eyes were fixed on Samsonov, who was returning the glance with -interest as he talked to the ambassador. Heidekopfer growled, helped -himself to some of the _zakuski_ (which seemed to consist largely of -various kinds of pickled fish and vegetables, with some of the soft -Venusian _kara_ nuts) and moved over to join the group around Rosa -Lanzerotti. Kazetzky was just saying, "It would pleasure me greatly, -little mother, if it is your will to allow me to show you some of the -natural beauty of happy Tolstoia tomorrow, while the others are making -their official observations." - -"Thank you," she said, "but I usually go with my husband on inspection -trips, when there are any, and I think I'd rather like to--" She broke -off suddenly with a frown between her brows, and Heidekopfer noticed -that the others in the group were staring at her with a quite peculiar -intensity. Kazetzky was swinging in his fingers some kind of little -bright ornament that he wore on a chain around his neck. - -Rosa Lanzerotti said slowly, "I think it would be very nice. You'll -have to call for me, though. I have no idea of what hours you keep in -Tolstoia." - -Kazetzky's lugubrious countenance took on an expression that was almost -a smile. "It shall be as you desire, little mother. The will of one is -the will of all." - -The group seemed to split apart, and Vikhranov's voice said in -Heidekopfer's ear, "Will you try some of our Tolstoian beer, Robert -Murrayovich?" - -"I thought you had a law against alcohol," said Heidekopfer, accepting -the proffered mug. - -"But beer is not alcohol. No one could become drunken from it. Besides, -we have a law against becoming drunken, too." - -The hell you say, thought Heidekopfer privately, and quaffed. It was -about as he suspected; the beer was certainly not 3.2. He said, "What's -the official schedule for us tomorrow?" - -"In the morning we visit a school and see how children are educated in -happy Tolstoia. If there is time we will also visit the grave of the -Patriarch Ilarion Triunfovich. In the afternoon, you will see one of -our collective farms. On the following day a picnic has been arranged. -It will last all day in accordance with our custom." - -Heidekopfer frowned. "The school may be some help, and I don't doubt -that the farm will be. But in the nature of the report we have to make, -a visit to one of your law courts would be a lot more interesting than -a picnic, and a sitting of your Supreme Soviet more interesting still." - -Vikhranov's flat face showed disapproval. "The sittings of the Supreme -Soviet are in secret by law," he said. "We would have to pass a special -law admitting you, and I am not sure but it would be concisionary." - -"Excuse me. You seem to have developed a term there I have not heard -before. What does 'concisionary' mean?" - -The guide's disapproval surprisingly became sullenness. "Am I to blame -if you cannot understand good Russian?" - -"We went to some trouble to learn it, even getting records of Russian -as it was spoken at the time Tolstoia was founded, and I'm sorry if -I've given offense. But my friend, I'd have you remember that we're -here to do you a favor, not the other way round. Have you got a -dictionary?" - -"We have no need of dictionaries in happy Tolstoia. They are a part -of culture and culture is fatal to happiness. It is set down in the -Master's own words." - - * * * * * - -It was saved from developing into a hassle as someone touched -Heidekopfer's arm to present him to Anna Golyevna Samsonova, a small -woman with dark hair, high cheek-bones and a mouth that seemed set -in a perpetual mysterious smile. She said, "Have you been in holy -Rrrrrussia, on earth, Robert Murrayovich?" - -"No, I haven't had that pleasure," he said, and added gallantly, "But -I'm sure this is better. You have made life so much simpler." - -"Yes, that is true. Here in happy Tolstoia the will of all is the will -of one, and the will of all is toward the good of all. All are happy." - -Her eyes darted past him, and he half-turned in time to see that -Samsonov was certainly displaying indisputable signs of happiness as -he talked to Ann, and what was a good deal worse, the girl was showing -no signs of unhappiness. Rather hastily, he said, "Don't you ever have -disagreements?" - -"Oh, yes. But they do not last long. And if one is not attuned, then he -takes the cure." - -"I see," said Heidekopfer, although he was reasonably sure he did not, -and was saved from more of this disjointed conversation by the ringing -of a bell, which Mrs. Samsonov said announced dinner. She led the way -through the side door to another large room, where there was a table -laid for dinner with steaming dishes already in place. Heidekopfer -noticed that the plates were of wood, and of the flatware beside them -only the knife-blades were metal. Everyone seemed to seat him or -herself where they pleased and fell to work at once on the food without -ceremony. - -Mrs. Samsonov said, "You may find our food difficult. People who come -here often do at first. But we have a law against eating meat except -while taking the cure." - -Difficult was the word for it, reflected Heidekopfer, munching away -at something that appeared to be a combination of cabbage and boiled -nuts with a sour sauce. He said, "You seem to have laws about almost -everything. Clothes, too?" - -She surveyed him with an air of puzzlement, and he noticed that in the -candlelight her eyes had a singularly deep quality. "Of course. How -would we know how to act without laws?" - -"Tell me, what does 'concisionary' mean?" - -"It means--" she gave him that glance again "--I don't quite know how -to define it, but something against the will of all. As you stay in -happy Tolstoia, you will understand." For a moment, looking into her -eyes, it seemed to Heidekopfer that he almost did understand. Then she -said, "Alexei Ivanovich is concisionary." - -"Who?" - -"Alexei Ivanovich Dubrassov. The traditionalist. He wished to become -patriarch when Pitrim Androvich did, but he would have led Tolstoia -back to the days before the brotherhood of man was achieved." She -looked around the table and clapped her hands as a signal that the meal -was over, and a couple of girls came hurrying in to gather the plates. - -Heidekopfer said, "Pardon me, but didn't someone tell me that you had a -law against serving one another?" - -"It is the will of all that the patriarch be served," she said. Nobody -seemed to be leaving the table and the reason became apparent when two -men with goose-necked stringed instruments came in, accompanied by a -girl who began to sing as they played. The music had certain haunting -strains, but was so disjointed that Heidekopfer decided he didn't like -it, and looked down the table to see how the others were taking it. He -got a shock. Samsonov, seated between Rosa Lanzerotti and Ann, had his -arm around the latter's shoulders, and she was leaning back with her -eyes half-closed and the smile of a smug kitten. - - - - - IV - - -Ann's voice sounded vaguely apologetic as she explained to Heidekopfer. -"His wife didn't seem to mind," she said. "I was watching her." - -"That isn't the point," said Heidekopfer. "It isn't even the point that -I minded a hell of a lot. As you have so often informed me, I don't own -you or even have a claim on you, much as I'd like to. I just want to -know _why_ you did it." - -The girl's lips closed and her pretty face set in obstinate lines. -"Because I wanted to. Because I felt like it. For the same reason I've -kissed you a few times." - -"But you've never kissed me with about sixteen people looking on. And -may I point out that the reason the castaways stayed in Tolstoia was -because they wanted to, too. I want to know what made you want to do -it." - -"And you're going to put the whip on me to find out," said the girl, -but with a smile. "No use, Bob--call it an uncontrollable impulse." - -Someone tapped at the door and it was Lanzerotti. "Want to come into my -room?" he said. "I'd like to compare notes, and if we do it here, two -of us will have to sit on the bed." - -"All right," said Heidekopfer. "Rosa back yet?" - -"No, still communing with nature and Pyotr Ilyich Kazetzky." He glanced -at his watch, saying, "I forgot that's no good here on the different -system of time, but I'd guess that it's a good hour before bedtime, so -I'm not going to worry. Come on." He led the way down the hall, and -threw open the door. - -"Notice there isn't a lock in the place?" said Heidekopfer. "It may -really be true that they've abolished crime." - -"I didn't see any either," said Lanzerotti, "but we have to be careful -about drawing conclusions from guided tours. The Russians have always -been great on setting up Potemkin villages." - -"Oh, back in the old imperial days an Empress named Catherine went on -a progress through the country to see how it was getting along under -her prime minister, Potemkin. He went ahead of her and had villages set -up, just the dummy fronts of houses, with actors to play the part of -villagers. Back in the Soviet period they used to pull the same trick, -to show tourists how prosperous the country was, only they did it with -real model villages and factories and people working in them." - -"I don't think they're doing that with us," said Heidekopfer. "On the -way to the school, I asked to turn off and see one of the farms we -passed, and it all seemed perfectly normal and in key with the rest." - -"Shall I get the pictures?" said Ann. "That white wall is rather rough, -but I imagine it will take projection." - -"No, they're for the record," said Lanzerotti. "I just want a verbal -report and impressions." He stepped across the room and opened the -sound box for recording. - -"Well," said Heidekopfer, "we went to a school this morning. It was -quite small, but had children of all ages up to about sixteen. It was -more like a manual training institute than what we'd call a school. -Most of them were learning to use tools, and some of them working in a -garden, and doing a pretty good job of it, I'd say. There was only one -class with books." - -"I asked about that," said Ann. "They practically don't have any books, -and those they do have are hand set and hand printed." - -"Of course, I can understand their not using microfilm," said -Heidekopfer. "That would run into their prohibition of machines. But I -don't quite see how they can claim a printing press isn't a machine." - - * * * * * - -Lanzerotti smiled. "Logic isn't the long suit of most theorists," he -said. "However, my opinion is generally favorable. They seem to be -decent people with a high standard of morality, and in spite of the -Potemkin village angle, it looks good. There's just one thing--we still -haven't found any explanation of why the castaways didn't come back. -And that is primarily why we came here." - -Heidekopfer said, "We can add a second point to that now--or perhaps -it's part of the same one. Did you notice Ann after dinner last night -while the music was playing?" - -Lanzerotti said, "I did notice that she seemed on fairly good terms -with our host on somewhat short notice, but I assumed it was her own -business." - -"The trouble is that she can't tell why she did it," said Heidekopfer. - -A little spot of red appeared in the girl's cheeks. "I told you because -I felt like it," she said, "and I'm not particularly grateful for being -pumped about it! Excuse me, I've got to charge my camera while you -discuss my case." She got up, avoided Heidekopfer's protesting hand, -and slipped out the door. - -Lanzerotti said, "The case seems to call for diplomacy, and as -the diplomat of the expedition, I prescribe a cooling-off period. -Meanwhile, continue." - -"There isn't much to continue with," said Heidekopfer, rubbing his chin -thoughtfully. "You know as well as I do that her behavior with Samsonov -wasn't--well, what you'd normally expect, even if it wasn't disgraceful -or anything. But it seems to me that it's of a piece with the behavior -of the castaways who decided to stay in Tolstoia. In both cases, there -was what she herself described as an uncontrollable impulse to do -something not normally done." - -"Evidence of pattern," said Lanzerotti. "You think pressure was applied -from outside. But how? Was the food or the beer drugged? No, it -couldn't have been that; we ate and drank the same things, and weren't -affected." - -"I don't know," said Heidekopfer. "It could have been a special for -her. Samsonov hardly took his eyes off her from the first time he saw -her." - -"I--" began Lanzerotti, when a tap sounded on the door and Rosa -Lanzerotti came into the room. "Hello, dear," she said, "have a good -day?" - -"Good with a little mystery in it, which we were just discussing. And -you?" - -She laughed. "The same. In fact, if you're up to a trip, the day isn't -over yet." - -"What do you mean?" - -"There's a man outside with a droshky to take us to see someone who -wants to meet you. I'll tell you the rest as we go. It might be a good -idea if you come along, too, Bob. Wait till I get a recorder." She went -over to get one of the small size that fits in a pocket, and the other -two stood up. Heidekopfer stopped to tap at Ann's door, but she didn't -answer, so he stopped at his own room long enough to slip a light in -his pocket, as it had grown quite dark outside. There was no one in -the dimly-lighted halls; apparently most good Tolstoians had decided -to call it a night. Outside, the heavy night mist which pinch-hits -for most of Venus' rain was drifting past in streamers, condensing on -everything it touched; Heidekopfer felt drops run down his face. - -Rosa said, "He's waiting at the corner of the road, and I was warned -not to let myself be seen, so you had better not put on the light now. - -"Damn!" said Lanzerotti, stumbling. "All right, Rosa, what's the story?" - -"We drove around most of the day looking at various views, while this -Kazetzky person explained to me how beautiful it all was. It was, too. -Stopped at a house where they were weaving cloth on a wooden hand -loom and had some lunch, then drove around again. Kazetzky is not an -interesting talker, as I began to realize about the fifteenth time -he repeated his line about nature and happiness being connected. But -toward dinner time he said, 'Ah! I shall take you to have a repast with -a man who has in him much of the spirit of the Master.'" - - * * * * * - -They had reached the end of the drive, and in the dark could just -make out the loom of the droshky. A voice said, "Little mother?" Rosa -answered, "Okay, it's me," and Heidekopfer flashed his light briefly to -enable them to climb into the vehicle. When they were seated and the -driver had stirred his horse into action with the inevitable crack of -the whip, Rosa went on, "He took me a little distance, little enough -so it looked as though he'd been intending to do that all along, to a -house almost as big as the one we're living in. Only the owner wasn't -living in it, he was living in a tent pitched in a field outside by -a stream. His name is Dubrassov, by the way. Kazetzky introduced me, -and then went to the house and brought the family out and introduced -them, too, ten or twelve of them. Dubrassov said I must bring you here -at once, tonight, before it was too late, to hear something terribly -important. They all said yes, I must, and then asked me whether I -wanted to eat with the family or Dubrassov. Of course I said Dubrassov, -and that was my big mistake. The meal consisted of a whitish liquid -that tasted like turpentine and burned like it--" - -"Kumiss," said Heidekopfer. "It has a kick, too." - -"Apparently they have exceptions to their law about liquor. Anyway, -I drank water. As I say, the meal consisted entirely of this kumiss -and meat, nothing else, and we had to eat it with our fingers. He -apologized for it, I will say, and said he was taking a cure of some -kind. A diet like that would cure me of wanting to live." - -For a moment there was silence as the droshky jounced along. Then -Lanzerotti's voice said out of the dark, "Evidently there are -disagreements, even in happy Tolstoia, and I'm grateful for the -opportunity to learn what they are. But this whole business has -a rather conspiratorial odor, and I'm not sure that a diplomatic -representative should be mixed up in it. If you don't mind my saying -so, Rosa, you might have given us a chance to discuss all the angles -before getting us out of the house." - -"But I couldn't do anything else, could I?" Her voice sounded hurt. - -The horse's feet clopped in the muddy road. Heidekopfer made a sound -like the beginning of speech, then stopped. - -"Beg pardon?" said Rosa. - -"I just wondered--why didn't you come with us to see the school today? -I should have thought you'd find it interesting." - -"Oh, there's plenty of time. Besides, if I hadn't gone out to see the -country with Kazetzky, I wouldn't have met Dubrassov." - -Lanzerotti stirred in his place and said, "By the way, Bob, while you -and Ann were looking over that farm this afternoon, I addressed myself -to the matter of communications. They don't have to have any, except -by word of mouth; the society is so static that there isn't anything -requiring quick action by a large number of people, and they can afford -to wait." - -"Find out anything more about the governmental system?" - -"They're disinclined to talk, but I gather it's an almost unchanged -adaptation of the Soviet system. Which might be expected, seeing their -ancestors came from there, and there's nothing in Tolstoi that would -conflict with the system. As a matter of historical process, I'm a bit -surprised that there should have been so little evolution--" - -"Hell!" said Heidekopfer. "Vincent, when you get to talking theory, -you're three parsecs over my head. I just want to know what makes -things tick in a practical way." - -"The difference is doubtless one of the reasons why we were associated -in this mission," said Lanzerotti evenly, and that seemed to put a -period to the conversation in the dark until Rosa said, "This must be -it. See that light in the tent?" - - * * * * * - -Heidekopfer flipped on his light and set it in the catch-ring of his -hat. The beam diffused through the drifting mist to catch a wooden -house painted white and with shutters, on quaint, old-fashioned lines. -It was all dark. The droshky pushed on past, bumping off the road -across a field toward where a light showed dimly through the wall of -a circular tent, and came to a halt. Lanzerotti jumped out and handed -Rosa down after him. She approached and said, "May I come in?" - -A deep voice boomed, "In the name of the Master, enter, little mother," -and the three went in. They saw a powerful looking man, not as big -as Samsonov, but with the same indefinable air of force, who barked, -"Dubrassov, Alexei Ivanovich," and promptly sat down in the only chair -in the tent. - -This time the ambassadors knew the right reply. They made it, Rosa sat -down on the bed, the others curled up on the ground floor of the tent -and waited. Dubrassov glanced from Lanzerotti to Heidekopfer and back -with quick motions of his head and neck thrust forward, as though he -were trying to see into their minds. Finally he said, "They make me -take the cure as concisionary, but it is not I who am the concisionary, -it is Pitrim Androvich." - -"Indeed," said Lanzerotti. - -"It is Pitrim Androvich," Dubrassov repeated. "The will of all is the -will of one, but he makes the will of one the will of all." - -"I thought the two went together," said Heidekopfer. - -The burning eyes were fixed on him. "Are you the ambassador? It is -anti-social to interrupt deliberations." - -Heidekopfer felt himself flush a little, but said nothing. He could -hear the buzz of Rosa's recorder. - -"I am the ambassador," said Lanzerotti smoothly. "But I am accredited -to the government of Tolstoia, and so far as I am aware, you are a -private citizen. However, I will be glad to hear anything you have to -say that may affect the question of whether the World Council should -allow Tolstoia to colonize the Wrightley Islands." - -"Pitrim Androvich wishes the world, even holy Russia." He paused -and blew his nose at the name, his Adam's apple moving. Heidekopfer -remembered Behrmann. "You should n-n-n--" He stopped suddenly, gagging -for breath, his eyes bulging, and then closed his mouth and tried -again. "The achievement of universal brotherhood makes the will of all -the will of one. It is possible to control the will of one for--" He -gagged again, his mouth open, then closed his eyes with a grimace and -said, "It is against the law to say more. Beware! And go, in the name -of the Master." - - - - - V - - -The fact that Venusian trees of every species tend to trail their -branches on the ground makes no particular difference; with -approximately one day's direct sunshine during a Venusian year, shade -is less important than what the tree produces and the decoration it -provides. Neither, reflected Heidekopfer, would it particularly matter -to people who were used to it that everything was mildly damp to the -touch. The members of the Supreme Soviet scattered on the bank of the -little natural amphitheatre around him seemed to be having a thoroughly -good time, laughing, talking, drinking beer and listening to the music -of the goose-necked instruments, which tinkled from group to group. He -felt lonely, and Ann was somewhere else. - -There was a touch on his shoulder and Lanzerotti sat down beside him, -saying in a low voice, "All right, but talk fast. And smile now and -then, so it will look casual. I understand how you couldn't discuss it -last night with Rosa in the droshky." - -"She got angry," said Heidekopfer. "Just like Ann." - -"And you think you have the explanation?" - -"You said something about pattern. It makes one. Mass hypnotism." - -Lanzerotti gestured with one hand, as though he were pointing to the -group around them. "I find that difficult to credit. The thing hasn't -existed since the days of the dictators and their wars." - -"Remember that these people are the overflow of a totalitarian state. -And I don't mean mass hypnotism with one person hypnotizing many, as -among the old dictators, but with the group exerting mass pressure on -one person. The will of all is the will of one." - -Lanzerotti smiled. "I think you misinterpret. There is undoubtedly some -pressure from what might be called public opinion, but--" - -"Listen!" cried Heidekopfer, desperately. "It all fits together. -Kazetzky twirled something bright in his fingers when he asked Rosa to -spend the day with him, and all of them rallied round. They've achieved -some kind of mental integration and they want to expand--" - -Lanzerotti laid a hand on his knee. "You're talking too loud. And I -think on the wrong lines. The nature of this development is essentially -elymosynnary--" - -Heidekopfer experienced a sensation of being surrounded by stone -walls as two of the Tolstoians stood over them. One was a member of -the Supreme Soviet whose name he had, of course, forgotten, and the -other was a remarkably pretty girl with ash-blond hair pulled back -from a well-shaped forehead. He got up, as the man from the Supreme -Soviet said, "Sonia Grigorevna is the cousin of the patriarch Pitrim -Androvich." - -"Heidekopfer, Robert Murrayovich," said Heidekopfer, dutifully. - -Lanzerotti repeated his part of the formula, but the girl seemed to be -concentrating on the reporter. "Is it not a joy to be in this beautiful -countryside?" she said, looking at him directly. - -"I find it so." - -"Would it be your will to let me show you some of the flowers of happy -Tolstoia?" she said. - - * * * * * - -If he were right, this was his chance to get one of them apart from the -rest, where the group pressure would presumably be less effective. He -said, "It would please me very much." - -She reached out a hand to take his. "Come," and led the way across the -bowl of green. A group of men and women stood in their path. "We are -going to look at flowers together," the girl announced gaily. "Pitrim -Androvich thinks it would be good." - -They all seemed to find something delightfully humorous in this, and -there was a burst of laughter as they crowded round. "Flowers are -nature's key to happiness!" boomed one of the men, patting Heidekopfer -on the shoulder. "You will see what fine ones we produce in happy -Tolstoia." - -He was suddenly aware that they were staring at him with a peculiar -intensity in the midst of their animated movements, and of a slight -tension, like the beginning of a headache, at the back of his neck. -This must be it; he was being high-pressured for some purpose. It was -understandable how they would call this the brotherhood of man ... how -they had developed the ability to put mass hypnotic pressure on any -individual ... how the castaways had been similarly pressured into -adopting the Tolstoian way of life ... how-- - -Sonia Grigorevna's voice came through his reverie, "Are you dreaming, -little father? Let us go." - -He shook himself a little, like a dog coming out of water. "By all -means, let us go." She was really beautiful, not with the broad Slavic -features at all, but a narrow face and high cheek-bones that must have -come from some remote Nordic ancestor. - -The others waved hands as she led him up the gentle slope at the edge -of the bowl, and pushed through a screen of trees into a field of lush -grass. There was a string of bushes toward the river-bank. "The best -flowers are there," said Sonia. - -"Tell me," he said, "when someone really does not want to do something -the rest want, how do you make them do it?" - -She gave him a glance of puzzlement. "I do not understand. We do not -make them do it. It is the word of the Master that everything savoring -of compulsion is harmful." - -Pretty neat, he thought ... just like the Russian Soviets of the old -days, who got away with dictatorship by calling it democracy. Aloud he -said, "I know. But don't you ever have--deviationists?" - -"Oh no. The will of all is the will of one. That is the brotherhood of -man. But if a person doubts whether his will is fully given, he takes -the cure. That is the law. This way." - -She pushed through the bushes and they were on a slope above the river, -starred with red poppy-like flowers. "Are they not beautiful? Let us -sit here and contemplate them. The contemplation of nature is the -source of happiness." - -Heidekopfer lowered himself to the damp grass, blessing the forethought -that had led him to dress in waterproof nylon. "They're very nice," he -said, "but when did you Tolstoians discover the brotherhood of man?" - -She settled herself comfortably against him. "I am not certain of the -date. But it was in the time of the Patriarch Ilarion Triunfovich, -long ago. Is it your will that we cease talking of material things and -address ourselves to what we see?" She snuggled against him, and the -pressure was not at all unendurable. - -He placed a hand on one of hers. "Just one more question. When people -come from the--outside, do you always will them to stay?" - -"We do not need to. Everyone wishes to stay in happy Tolstoia. See how -that blossom shakes on its stalk." - -Except those who come back in boxes, he thought, and wondered how he -could broach the subject, but before he could think out a way, she -lifted his hand beneath her own and pressed it softly against her -cheek. He turned to look at her; her lips were slightly parted as she -lifted her lovely face toward his.... - -[Illustration: He turned to look at her; her lips were slightly parted -as she lifted her lovely face toward his.] - -And it struck him like a thunderbolt why the others had laughed when -Sonia said they were going to see flowers at Samsonov's suggestion, and -what the pressure had been on him for. He said abruptly, "Do you know -where Ann went--the photographer who was with us?" - -"To look at flowers with Pitrim Androvich." Her glance was neither -disappointed nor hostile, merely a trifle wide-eyed as though she had -just discovered something frightening. She let his hand drop. - - - - - VI - - -So that was the play, thought Heidekopfer, a trifle grimly. The -Patriarch was going to make off with Ann while providing him with a -substitute and putting the heat on him to accept. He scrambled up and -reached a hand to Sonia Grigorevna. "Let's get back to the others, if -it is your will." - -Later, back with the others Heidekopfer confided his ideas. "If you -will forgive me," said Lanzerotti, "I find your theory slightly -fantastic." - -"So do I," said Rosa. "I haven't been conscious of any sense of -pressure or the headachy feeling you mention, and I haven't done a -thing I didn't really want to do." - -They were sitting in the ambassador's room at the Samsonov house, and -it was not yet dark enough to make the candles necessary, although -they were lighted. Ann wasn't there. Heidekopfer drew a long breath. -"The only thing I can suggest is that you have been influenced too, -to some extent. Come on, look at it objectively. Won't you admit the -possibility?" - -"As a matter of principle, yes," said Lanzerotti. "This is an island -culture in the sense that it has been cut off from contact with others, -and I'm well aware that island races often develop on aberrant lines. -But I see no signs of the compulsions you mention." - -"Not even Dubrassov? When he tried to warn us about something and -couldn't?" - -Lanzerotti smiled. "I'm afraid Dubrassov's case is a rather simple one -of hallucination. It was explained to me this afternoon. They don't -lock up their mental cases here; they simply let them take that cure, -which amounts to a kind of shock-treatment in view of their usual -habits." - -"Damn it!" said Heidekopfer, but Lanzerotti held up a hand. "Listen, -Bob," he said, "I quite understand your annoyance and the reason for -it. And I will say that I'm a little surprised at Ann's behavior with -our friend the Patriarch. But that's a purely personal matter, and -shouldn't be allowed to cloud the diplomatic issue, which is above -personalities. And on that level I haven't encountered anything to -justify your apprehensions." - -"The evidence of pattern? You mentioned it once before. The suicides?" - -"The suicides were just suicides. I hinted at the matter and one of -them--I think it was Vikhranov--came right out with the explanation -without even being asked. It seems that the suicide cases among the -castaways were people who had some strong tie or reason for going back, -but still couldn't bear to leave Tolstoia once they got here. A simple -case of a conflict they were unable to resolve." - -Heidekopfer got up and began to pace the floor, his brow set in a -frown. "Well, anyway," he said at last, "I might as well tell you that -I'm doing something practical about what you call my apprehensions. -After what developed at the picnic I radioed South Bergenland for a -helio. It will be here tonight, and I'm going back on it and taking Ann -with me. I advise you to come, too." - - * * * * * - -Rosa Lanzerotti trilled a little laugh. "I don't think you'll find Ann -particularly grateful--or particularly willing," she said. - -"Then by God I'll get help to make her willing!" cried Heidekopfer. - -"Wait--" began Lanzerotti, but he was already out the door and almost -running down the corridor toward the apartment occupied by the -Samsonovs. Not knowing what the custom was, he knocked. A female voice -said, "Enter, in the name of the Master." - -Mrs. Samsonov, looking as mysterious as ever, was sitting beside a -table with one of the girls who served at table, sewing on something. -"Good evening, Robert Murrayovich," she said. "Pitrim Androvich is out -this evening." - -"As a matter of fact, it was you that I wanted to see," he said, "and -alone, if possible." - -She glanced at the girl. "Is it your will to leave at the desire of the -little father?" - -"The will of one is the will of all," said the girl, picked up her -sewing and went through a door at the back as Mrs. Samsonov faced -Heidekopfer. "What is it you desire to say, Robert Murrayovich?" - -He hesitated. "Well, it's rather difficult, and I hope you won't be -offended--but--" - -"In happy Tolstoia we do not take offense at what Nature gives us to -do." - -"That's very nice of you. Well, it's about Miss Starnes--Ann -Samuelovna." - -"She is very beautiful." - -"That's just the trouble, I'm afraid. Did you know that she went to -look at flowers with your husband this afternoon?" - -Anna Gulyevna's smile became a trifle more Mona Lisa than before, if -possible. "Yes, I knew it." - -"And it doesn't worry you? Not even a little bit?" - -"Not even a little bit, Robert Murrayovich." - -"And he told her she should have children." - -"It is good to have children." She smiled again at his hopeless -expression and laid down her sewing. "Listen, Robert Murrayovich, and -I will tell you how it is in happy Tolstoia. We have a law that a -husband and wife must remain faithful to each other. So that if Pitrim -Androvich looks at flowers with Ann Samuelovna, or even touches and -kisses her, it is because he thinks she is beautiful, like a part of -nature. Even though he is Patriarch he cannot break the law." - -"But damn it!" said Heidekopfer. "I want to marry her myself!" - -"Is it her will also? The will of one must become the will of all." - -Heidekopfer experienced a violent sense of frustration. "Look here," -he said, "I know you have means of influencing the way people think -about things. Can't you give me a little help with Ann?" - -She lifted one hand and placed it beside her cheek. "She has achieved -the brotherhood of man, and I think she will want to become a citizen -of happy Tolstoia," she said. "If she does, the only way would be for -the Supreme Soviet to pass a law that she must marry you. Thus the will -of all becomes the will of one." - -"But I don't want to stay in Tolstoia," said Heidekopfer, "I--" - -Outside the door someone shouted, "In the name of the Master, may I -enter?" - -"Enter," called Anna Gulyevna, and the door opened on Kazetzky. His -expression looked even more morose than usual. He said to Heidekopfer, -"I am glad you are here, little father. Good evening Anna Gulyevna--I -am the bearer of unhappy news." - -"Unhappiness cannot remain long in happy Tolstoia," said Anna Gulyevna -gravely. "What is your news, Pyotr Ilyich?" - -"Pitrim Androvich is very desirous of the foreign woman. He has called -a session of the Supreme Soviet for tonight, and will propose a law -that a man may have two wives, so that he can marry her." - -Heidekopfer saw Anna Gulyevna's hands tense in her lap and the secret -smile dropped from her face. "That is most unhappy news, Pyotr Ilyich," -she said. - -"See here," said Heidekopfer, "can't something be done about this?" He -looked at Kazetzky. "You're a member of the Supreme Soviet, aren't you? -Can't you oppose the bill on the ground that it's--concisionary, or -something?" - - * * * * * - -But they shook their heads, looking at him gloomily. "Well, by God, I'm -going to do something about it if nobody else does," he said, getting -to his feet. "Where's this meeting being held?" - -Kazetzky did not move. "It is even worse than you think, little -father. Pitrim Androvich will propose a law of suicide against you." - -Anna Gulyevna gasped and put one hand to her mouth. Heidekopfer looked -bewildered. "What have I done and what's a law of suicide?" he asked. - -"You are a resistant," said Kazetzky. "It was the will of all that you -fall in love with the girl Sonia Grigorevna whom you took to look at -flowers this afternoon, but it did not become your will. Therefore, it -is evident that you are resistant to the will of all. We always pass -laws of suicide against resistants, especially if they are foreigners. -It is the only way of maintaining the brotherhood of man." - -"I see," said Heidekopfer, and he did, with a sudden horrible clarity. -So this was what had happened to the castaways! And how many others had -been wiped out in these self-inflicted purges since they established -their "brotherhood of man?" The hackles on his neck were rising, but he -managed a laugh. "Well, if I'm a resistant, I guess I'm not going to -worry about it too much." - -Anna Gulyevna's face looked a trifle pale, even in the candlelight. -"You do not know the strength of a law of suicide," she said. "It makes -use of the death-wish, and those against whom it is passed cannot sleep -until they sleep forever." - -"Do you mean I have to take it lying down? I'm damned if I do!" He took -four quick steps across the room, tore open the door and started down -the hall. Kazetzky's voice behind him said, "A moment, little father." - -Heidekopfer faced him. "Well?" - -"What are you going to do, little father?" - -"See Lanzerotti--Vincent Guidovich. He's the ambassador of the Council, -and he isn't going to let anything like this go on." - -"It will do you no good. This has happened before. He has accepted the -will of all, and will not believe you until the law has been passed. -When the two new laws are passed and the foreign woman has married -Pitrim Androvich, then you will commit suicide, and he will say, 'Ah, -that is the reason he did it.'" - -"You're so full of bright ideas you just slay me," said Heidekopfer -with a wry twist to his mouth. "But I don't think you'd be batting them -up unless you had something in mind. Come on, out with it." - -Kazetzky said, "If you could leave Tolstoia and return where you came -from before the law was passed, I do not think you would be in danger. -There would be too many people around you with confused thoughts who do -not belong to the brotherhood of man." - -"And leave Ann behind to marry that old goat? No, I think not." - -Kazetzky said, "Then there is only one thing to do. That is to go to -the session of the Supreme Soviet and try to prevent the laws being -passed. You are a resistant, and it is possible you could make their -thinking confused enough." - -Heidekopfer glanced at him sharply. "You want me to, don't you? What's -your interest in this?" - -"I am a supporter of Alexei Ivanovich Dubrassov. He is a traditionalist -who does not believe happy Tolstoia should be extended as Pitrim -Androvich wishes. If the law of suicide is not passed and you report -against giving us the islands, there will be a law of suicide against -Pitrim Androvich, and Alexei Ivanovich will be Patriarch." - -Heidekopfer laughed shortly. "I thought there'd be some -chestnut-pulling connected with this somewhere. How come that the will -of all the others to follow the Patriarch's plan didn't affect you and -Dubrassov, too?" - -The man's face went sullen. "You have no right to ask me questions like -that," he said. - -Heidekopfer reflected that the development of their mental integration -had not made the Tolstoians any the less Russian. "All right, let's -go," he said. "Is it far?" - -"At the schoolhouse. I have a droshky which I took to bring Anna -Gulyevna the news. It is not good to let bad news delay until the will -of one becomes a resistance." - -"Okay. Wait just a minute, will you, while I get my pocket radio. I've -got some friends coming who may be some help, and I might want to get -in touch with them." - - - - - VII - - -The lights behind the windows of the schoolhouse made vague islands in -the dark pennons of mist. Kazetzky got out and tied the horse to the -hitching-rail as Heidekopfer dismounted. "Go in, little father," he -said. "I will stay outside as long as I can." He was breathing hard, as -though trying with all his strength to resist some kind of compulsion. - -Heidekopfer checked the sets of his radio, walked to the door and flung -it open. The fifteen or twenty men and women of the Supreme Soviet were -seated in chairs scattered in no particular order around the classroom, -with Samsonov at the teacher's desk, his back to Heidekopfer as the -latter entered. But the thing that made the reporter catch his breath -as the faces turned toward him like flowers toward the sun was the -sight of Ann Starnes, sitting just to the right of the Patriarch. Her -glance was coldly unfriendly. - -For a second or two the tableau held. Then Samsonov turned round and -rose majestically to his feet. "The session of the Supreme Soviet is -secret," he said, and glared. - -Heidekopfer once more felt the headache sensation at the back of his -neck, accompanied by an almost overwhelming impulse to get out of -there, to escape from that place before something dreadful happened, a -strange malaise, which he could not name possessed him. He staggered -back a step, then caught Ann's eye fixed on him with the same quality -as the rest, and was abruptly seized by another impulse, even more -overwhelming. - -The second one struck him as a better idea, anyway, so he yielded to -it. He took three rapid steps toward the Patriarch Samsonov and let him -have one fetched up from the region of the belt-line. - -It took the big man flush on the button, and down he went, thrashing -and kicking, as the room burst into a turmoil of shouts and chairs -knocked to the floor. Ann screamed. Heidekopfer grabbed her by the arm. -"You're coming with me whether you like it or not," he said in English, -and turned to face the group menacingly. But nobody seemed inclined to -offer him any opposition, and the thought flashed through his head that -they probably had a law against physical violence, too. - -Samsonov had hauled himself to his feet with the aid of the desk. There -was a little trickle of blood from his mouth and his eyes were deadly. -The last thing Heidekopfer heard him say as he pulled the girl through -the door was, "There will be a law--" - -Kazetzky had disappeared. Ann was limp as he bundled her into the -droshky, and didn't say anything until he had unhitched the horse, -climbed to the driver's seat, and with a combination of yells and -jerking on the reins, urged it into plodding motion. Then she said, -"Oh, Bob!" - -He didn't turn around. "Yeah. What is it?" - -"I was hating you. I knew they were going to pass a law that you should -commit suicide, and I was going to help them." - -"Nice of you." - -"When you hit him, something happened. It was like coming out of a dark -room into the sunlight.... Bob!" - -"What is it?" - -"I think I need a keeper. I'll marry you when we get back--if we ever -do." She began to cry. - -This time he swung round on the seat. "Listen, angel," he said, "I want -you just enough to take you up on that, whether it's on a rebound or -not. But are you sure you're out from under the control that big lug -seemed to have snapped on you?" - -"I--I--think so. But I don't know how long it will last. Get me out of -here, quick!" - - * * * * * - -Overhead, a beam of light stabbed down through the crowding mist, just -picking out the corner of Samsonov's house a few hundred yards beyond -them, and there was a sound of ghostly wings. The beam shifted, ran -along a line of trees, and then satisfied itself with an open field. - -"The helio," said Heidekopfer. "I radioed for one on the chance I could -get you away." He tried to urge the horse to greater speed as lights -came on in the building and the aircraft swung in for a landing in a -pool of its own illumination. Abruptly, the headache sensation took -him in the back of the neck again, stronger than ever, accompanied by -an intolerable sense of depression, and the night was suddenly full -of horrors ahead. It was not worth the trouble. He felt the reins -loosening in his hands. "Ann!" he cried, "Ann ..." and blacked out. - -He came to to the sound of purring motors and struggled to sit up. -Someone said, "Give him this," and a cup of coffee was held against his -lips. He looked up into Ann's face. - -"Still feel the same way you did in the droshky?" was the first thing -he said as he drank. - -"Sssh. Yes," she said, and he looked round to see the Lanzerottis -smiling at him across the cabin of the helio. He struggled upright on -the transom. "That was a narrow one," he said. "I think they must have -passed the law of suicide against me. But I can't figure out how it -would affect me so. They said I was a resistant." - -Lanzerotti said, "Thought can operate without physical presence. The -Christian Scientists and Theosophists on earth knew that years ago. And -this was a rather massive impact." - -Heidekopfer shook his head. "Give me a little more of that stuff, will -you? I'm still a little groggy. What I can't figure out is how you two -got away and came along." - -"We were talking about that," said Lanzerotti. "Rosa and I were just -getting ready for bed, when it suddenly struck us that everything you -had said was true, and the Tolstoians had us under control and were -showing us, in effect, a Potemkin village. When you knocked Samsonov -out, even for only a moment, the control snapped on us as it did on -Ann. Then he got so interested in passing the law of suicide against -you that he didn't have time to rebuild his fences. So we got away, but -we had to leave most of the records." - -Heidekopfer drank again. "I don't suppose it makes much difference, -though," he said. "Our verbal report ought to be enough to keep the -Council from giving them the Wrightley Islands. My God, if that thing -got loose! With what they've developed they'd be able to take over -every inch of the three worlds, little by little, and turn them into -more Tolstoias." - -"No," said Lanzerotti emphatically. - -"No what?" - -"My recommendation will be that we grant them the Wrightley Islands and -any other bits of uninhabited territory they happen to want--but only -for so long as Samsonov remains Patriarch." - -Heidekopfer's mouth fell open. "What!" he exclaimed aghast, "Has he -still got you under?" - -Lanzerotti's smile was bland. "Not at all. They've attained the goal of -the totalitarian state. They've got everybody thinking alike. Remember, -Dubrassov couldn't warn us, even when he wanted to, although he -couldn't bring himself to go along with Samsonov's expansionist policy. -Samsonov showed us Potemkin villages, all right. But don't you see what -all this crazy set-up adds up to? These people can't change. They've -lost their adaptability. - -"The system has to be rigid, because the first time anyone expresses -an individual idea, the whole totalitarian structure will collapse. -They're inbred and interlocked, and Samsonov has complete control of -their thinking and their behavior--for the time being, at least. But -as soon as the Tolstoians expand to the Wrightley Islands, or anywhere -else, they'll be facing conditions they've never before encountered. -They'll have to learn to think for themselves again--" - -"--And as soon as they start to think new thoughts, Samsonov's power -will evaporate. He'll lose his grip, just like he did on me!" finished -Heidekopfer, reaching for Ann's hand. - -"You see," concluded Lanzerotti, "Dubrassov was the really dangerous -one. He didn't have new ideas, and whether they were castaways or not, -more people would have been drawn in on him." - -The little group was quiet, contemplative, then they smiled knowingly -at one another. - -"Let's get home," said Ann, "and make our--my last picture." - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POTEMKIN VILLAGE *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Potemkin village</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Fletcher Pratt</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: September 24, 2022 [eBook #69042]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POTEMKIN VILLAGE ***</div> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>POTEMKIN VILLAGE</h1> - -<h2>A Novelet by FLETCHER PRATT</h2> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Startling Stories, February 1953.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">I</p> - - -<p>Director Unterbaum of the Intercolonial Office rose from his chair as -the pair came in. "I take it you haven't met before?" he said. "Mr. and -Mrs. Lanzerotti, this is Ann Starnes, the recording photographer, and -Robert Heidekopfer, one of our better writers."</p> - -<p>There were smiles and acknowledgments. Unterbaum touched a pair of -buttons on his desk and two chairs slid out of the walls to make a -group of five. "Sit down, please," he said. "Now I'm not going to mince -words. The reason you're here is because the Council wants you—three -of you, at least—to undertake a mission. Vincent—" he indicated -Lanzerotti, who nodded a dark head—"already knows something about it, -but for the benefit of Miss Starnes and Mr. Heidekopfer, I will say -that we want to send you to Tolstoia."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer smiled and said, "Sounds better than that trip to the polar -mines on Mars, eh Ann?"</p> - -<p>"Warmer, anyhow," said the girl, turning a carefully-kept blonde head. -"But I thought Tolstoia was closed to visitors."</p> - -<p>"The patriarch has agreed to let a delegation in for this visit," said -Unterbaum, "so we can render a fair and unbiased report on Tolstoia, -in word, picture and observation. The point is this; there are some -islands about three hundred miles off the coast of Tolstoia, between it -and South Bergenland—the Wrightley Islands. They have no resources, -but Tolstoia wants to colonize them." He touched buttons again, and a -map appeared on the wall showing the almost-round shape of the island -nation, with the islands and the tip of South Bergenland at the right.</p> - -<p>Unterbaum went on: "They're uninhabited, so there isn't any objection -from the Demographic Commission, although it's unusual for one of the -hermit-states to expand. But there are certain features of the request -that make the Council inclined to go slow; or at least to want more -information."</p> - -<p>He stopped, seeming to wait for a question, so Heidekopfer asked it. -"What are they?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Lanzerotti answered, "To begin with, the place was founded in -accordance with the philosophy of Count Leo Tolstoi, a Russian -writer of some centuries back. The Russians discovered that a sect -of people who believed in his ideas was growing up in their country, -and considered it a threat to the organization of their state. They -couldn't dispose of the Tolstoians under the genocide laws, so they -appealed to the Council and it agreed to expatriate all the Tolstoians -the Russians could identify."</p> - -<p>"Then it was a penal colony, like the Moon mines?" inquired Heidekopfer.</p> - -<p>"No," said Lanzerotti. "As a matter of fact, when the announcement was -made, the Tolstoians came forward in numbers and identified themselves. -But they thought they were going to have a reservation set apart for -them in Russia itself, and when they found they were going to an island -on Venus, there was a certain amount of resentment."</p> - -<p>"Do you think it still exists? That if they're allowed to get hold of -the islands, they'll do something drastic—say start a war?"</p> - -<p>"Not after all these years," said Lanzerotti. "It's nearly three -centuries, and national resentments don't last that long without -something to feed on. Besides, pacifism was one of Tolstoi's doctrines."</p> - -<p>"Then what are we supposed to look for?"</p> - -<p>Lanzerotti spread his hands. "We don't know. That's what's worrying -the Diplomatic Division. Asking for more territory indicates a rising -birth-rate, but the kind of territory they're asking for doesn't -promise a rise serious enough to worry the Demographic Commission. We -don't consider it likely that Tolstoianism has become militant. But to -be honest, we just don't know."</p> - -<p>Ann Starnes smiled. "It sounds like hunting for a needle in a haystack -when you don't even know whether there's any needle," she said.</p> - -<p>"On the contrary," said Unterbaum, "we're fairly certain there is a -needle, and a sharp one. What we need to know is what kind of needle it -is before someone gets stuck with it. Listen—" He snapped up one of -the lids in his desk and spun a wheel of recording tape. "Planes aren't -allowed to land in Tolstoia, of course, but every once in a while -one comes down there, and occasionally a yacht or fishing-craft gets -wrecked on the coast. Now the normal procedure in such a case with a -hermit-state is that they hold survivors and notify someone to come and -get them. They stopped doing that about eighty years ago."</p> - -<p>"What do you mean?" said Heidekopfer. "Stopped notifying or stopped -rescuing survivors?"</p> - -<p>"It isn't quite certain," said Unterbaum, "but here's the sequence, -such as it is. Seventy-eight years ago Bernard Jones and his wife -disappeared while on a flight from MacNider to South Bergenland." He -indicated the map. "You see, that would carry them close to Tolstoia. -Three months later one of the fishing vessels, which are the only form -of communication the Tolstoians have, turned up at MacNider. It had -a letter from Mrs. Jones. She said her husband had died in a crash -landing, and she was staying in Tolstoia with the permission of the -authorities."</p> - -<p>"Anything wrong about that?" asked Heidekopfer.</p> - -<p>"There's nothing wrong with any of this," said Unterbaum, "at least as -far as that instance goes. It's other things. Nothing has been heard of -Mrs. Jones since. Seventy-six years ago, a musician named Bruno Zaleski -went on a yachting trip in the South Ocean with a party of three. They -never came back. After the usual interval letters came through from -all of them. They said they found Tolstoia a Venusian paradise and were -going to stay. Zaleski was heard from again. At the time of the next -incident, one year later, his brother received a letter telling how -happy he was."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He paused for a moment. "The incident sixty-seven years ago was the -beginning of a new series. It concerned a man named Walter Artem, -another plane case. Like Jones, he disappeared. One of the Tolstoian -fishing-craft brought him back, but he was dead. They had preserved his -body carefully. I'll show you the picture."</p> - -<p>He touched the stud and the watchers found themselves gazing at a -coffin, partly glassed so the occupant was visible to the waist. Rose -Lanzerotti gave a little cry and with reason, for the face within was -peculiarly horrible; bloated and suffused with blood, the neck swelling -out over a clearly visible rope.</p> - -<p>"They explained he had hanged himself," Unterbaum continued.</p> - -<p>"I have a question," said Ann Starnes. "Why did they go to all the -trouble of preserving him just the way he died? It sounds as though -they were afraid somebody might get suspicious."</p> - -<p>"That's what I thought," said Unterbaum. "But there's an explanation. -The records show that the Tolstoians, even while they were in Russia, -showed a peculiar reverence for their dead when they were important -people. It's a hold-over from their twentieth century leader Lenin. -They preserve bodies this way so they're visible. The explanation -that came with Artem's body was that the Tolstoians didn't know how -important he was, but thought he might be big enough to deserve -preservative treatment."</p> - -<p>"Polite of them," murmured Lanzerotti.</p> - -<p>"Very," said Unterbaum. "Almost too polite. Because it was -repeated—since Artem there have been six cases of castaways on -Tolstoia committing suicide and being delivered at MacNider in -preserved form."</p> - -<p>"All hangings?" asked Heidekopfer.</p> - -<p>"No. One stabbing, three shootings, two overdoses of soporifics. There -are autopsy records on those, and they're legitimate."</p> - -<p>"Seems a high proportion of suicides among the castaways," said -Heidekopfer. "Can anything be made of that?"</p> - -<p>"Nobody seemed to think so," said Unterbaum. "Seven suicides out of a -given group over a period of eighty years isn't much, after all. The -thing that stirred up our office was the discovery that in the past -eighty years not one castaway has come back alive. They've either been -crated out as suicides or sent through letters saying they have decided -to become citizens of Tolstoia."</p> - -<p>He paused a moment to let that sink in. "A number of these cases are -rather special. There was Carmenilla Baio, forty-four years ago. She -was a video dancer on a flight from MacNider to South Bergenland. Sent -out the usual letter saying she had decided her future lay in Tolstoia, -and followed it with another one a couple of years later. That's -ordinary enough, but the case made the news, and when we went through -the records, we found that when she disappeared she had been married -only three months and was passionately devoted to her husband. Her -second letter was written in a kind of code, and asked him to fake an -accident and join her there."</p> - -<p>"Did he?" asked Ann Starnes.</p> - -<p>"Any possibility of forgery in those letters?" asked Heidekopfer at the -same time.</p> - -<p>Unterbaum turned to the girl. "No to your question. As for the other -one, Carmenilla Baio's private code was certainly no forgery."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer said, "It appears that the Tolstoians compel them to stay -there, and if they argue, bump them off. Is that it?"</p> - -<p>"That would be a charge of genocide. I do not think—" began Lanzerotti.</p> - -<p>"I don't either," said Unterbaum. "The Tolstoians wouldn't expose -themselves to such a thing, especially in view of their origins. No, -I'm convinced they have been quite honest, leaning over backward—as -witness the preserved suicides—but there's some factor in the equation -we don't know. And I won't deny that there's danger in the trip."</p> - -<p>"Then I'm going," said Rosa Lanzerotti, decisively. She was a small -woman with vivid Italiote coloring.</p> - -<p>Ann Starnes said, "Might as well square the party off, hadn't we? It -would be nice to have someone to handle the recording tapes and films."</p> - -<p>Unterbaum frowned. "The Intercolonial Office—" he began.</p> - -<p>Lanzerotti said, "I believe that psychologists recognize it as a -temperamental danger to send two men and one woman on a protracted -expedition."</p> - -<p>"I ought to know better than to argue with a diplomat," said Unterbaum.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">II</p> - - -<p>The low spit guarding the harbor entrance was only a slightly deeper -blue than the water and perpetual overcast of Venus. Captain Ratterman -sighed, reported "No charts," and spoke into the communicator, "Cut -speed to eight knots, use full automatics on the bottom sonics," -then he turned to the pair beside him on the bridge. "I'm not being -inhospitable. In fact, you're welcome to stay as long as you please. -But it's fair to warn you that we won't be docking for another three -hours."</p> - -<p>"We love your company," said Ann Starnes, but Heidekopfer picked at her -arm, and led her toward the gangway. When they had reached the low, -flat bow with the water whispering softly beneath, he said, "How about -it, Ann? Why not marry me now and save trouble? You're going to anyway, -some day, and it might be a protection here."</p> - -<p>She put a hand over one of his. "No, Bob. Not now. I'll give you -first place on the list, but I'm not going to marry you—or anybody -else—until I'm something more than a failure."</p> - -<p>"You're no failure. The fact that you were selected for this job proves -it."</p> - -<p>"Just a competent mechanical photographer, Bob—you needn't tell me. -I was picked because I had worked with you before, and your work is -important."</p> - -<p>"Look ..." he started to say, then let it trail off. They had argued -the point so often it was like another trip on a merry-go-round. Ann -said, "I don't want to be just a wife, like Rosa Lanzerotti."</p> - -<p>He moved. "Do you think she's—a failure?"</p> - -<p>"No-o. Not within her own dimension. It just isn't mine. I want to be -something more important than a good mechanical photographer."</p> - -<p>"Did it ever occur to you—" he began, and let it trail off as he -watched a formation of the odd Venusian batfish soar from the water -under the bow and sweep overhead to dive again in perfect alignment. -The ship swung. The long blue tongue of land came round on their right -and the harbor opened before them. There was a little grove of masts at -its depth clustered around what seemed to be docks, but he saw no town -on the shore behind.</p> - -<p>"Think you can handle the language all right now?" asked Ann, a note of -banter in her question.</p> - -<p>"If there hasn't been too much development in it since Tolstoia was -closed off. Communications thought a good many special terms might -have developed. What worries me more is the system of ideas. You were -lucky, not having to study Tolstoi. He had a philosophy, all right, but -I can't conceive how it could be translated into a practical method of -living, and neither can Vincent. Unless we do understand, it's going to -be hard to present a sympathetic picture."</p> - -<p>"Photos are always sympathetic," said Ann. "The question is, do we want -to be? Let's go down and have a cup of coffee. The betting is there -won't be any where we're going."</p> - -<p>The other two were in the cabin and the cup of coffee lasted until a -cessation of movement and a slight bump indicated they had arrived. -There was a bustle of gathering luggage; they went topside to find -the gangplank already laid to a dilapidated dock with holes in the -planking, alongside which little Tolstoian fishing-craft rose and -fell rhythmically to the swell. At the shore end of the dock a little -group of men in embroidered white smocks with square caps on their -heads looked on with an air of complete uninterest as the ambassadors -disbarked. There were four droshkies behind them; a house was visible -among drooping-branched Venusian trees.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Ann set her camera to automatic and hooked it to her belt as Lanzerotti -led the way along the dock. Three of the men detached themselves from -the group and waited. As the ambassadors approached, one of them -clasped his hands together, said, "Behrmann, Andrei Pavlich" and took -a step back. "Vikhranov, Nicolai Leonovich," said the second, and the -third, "Kazetzky, Pyotr Ilyich." He was a tall man, with a long, hooked -nose and an expression of deep melancholy.</p> - -<p>Lanzerotti stepped forward. "We are the representatives of the -Interplanetary Council," he said. "My name is Vincent Lanzerotti with -the rank of ambassador. This is Mrs. Lanzerotti, and Miss Starnes, our -photographer and Mr. Heidekopfer, the official observer. We have a good -deal of baggage."</p> - -<p>The three looked at each other. Behrmann was a short man with a broad -Slavic face. He said, "Bring it forward. Transportation has been -provided to the seat of the patriarch."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer remembered that somewhere in Tolstoi there was something -about not waiting on other people; also, that he was not going to have -as much difficulty with the language as he had feared. Behrmann's -accent was a little funny, but he put his sentences together in the -classical manner and with the right words. The sailors were loading -their baggage onto power-dollies. Vikhranov said, "The ambassador will -take the first droshky, with myself and Pyotr Ilyich. Andrei Pavlich -will accompany you in the second." He waved a hand toward Ann and -Heidekopfer.</p> - -<p>As their guides led the way toward the vehicles, Heidekopfer said, "One -thing surprises me, if you don't mind a snap judgment. I would have -expected to find more of a city around your port."</p> - -<p>Behrmann turned his head with a smile. "We have no cities," he said. -"They are destroyers of nature, and without communion with nature there -is no happiness."</p> - -<p>That was good Tolstoi, all right, thought Heidekopfer, and said to -Ann, "They don't take very good care of their roads here, do they?"</p> - -<p>"I should say not—and my mud-shedders are all nicely packed in -the baggage, too." She lifted a neatly clad foot that was already -plentifully marked with black Venusian mire. "Their trees are nice, -though, and look how even the rows in that field are." She aimed the -camera at it for a moment, and spoke to Behrmann in Russian; "Where are -the fishermen for the boats?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, this is Thursday," he said, standing aside so she could get in the -droshky. "On this day they work in the fields. It is good to work in -the fields, and we have a law that all who follow other forms of work -shall do so for one day a week."</p> - -<p>"That's not a bad law for an agricultural community," observed -Heidekopfer. "I suppose you are practically all agriculture? But -what do you do for manufactured articles—like shoes and glass and -newspapers?"</p> - -<p>In the droshka ahead Vikhranov raised his hand; both drivers -shouted something like "Ya-ya!" simultaneously, cracked their whips -tremendously, and the procession was off along a dirt road in a -decidedly poor state of repair.</p> - -<p>"I am not sure I understand your question," said Behrmann. "Shoes or -glass, when we want them we make them. As for newspapers, they are -forbidden by the word of the Master. I know there must be such things, -because they are mentioned, but I have never seen one and do not really -know what they are."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The road had begun to rise toward a cut in a range of low hills. -"Uh-huh," said Heidekopfer, "and I suppose radio falls under the -prohibition on newspapers. Well, let me put it this way; suppose -someone had an idea for a new kind of machine. Would he have to make -all the parts himself?"</p> - -<p>"There is a law against machines. They interfere with simplicity."</p> - -<p>"But doesn't anyone ever have an idea for a machine so brilliant that -he simply has to make it in spite of the law?"</p> - -<p>"How could he? It is against the law."</p> - -<p>"Do you mean that the law here is always obeyed?"</p> - -<p>"Always. That is the superiority of Tolstoia to all other peoples. -Those who come to our happy country by accident never wish to leave -when they find that through the doctrines of the Master we have -established the brotherhood of men."</p> - -<p>Ann gave a little giggle. "I know," said Heidekopfer rapidly in -English, "I think we can take that with a cellar full of salt." He -switched to Russian; "Then you have no crime?"</p> - -<p>"In our happy country?" said Behrmann. "No. Look how beautiful is the -arrangement of the cows in that field?"</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer sighed. Then he said, "Tell me something about the -government of your country. I don't want to be too inquisitive, but I -have to report on these things when I get back."</p> - -<p>Behrmann's face flashed a frown. "It is hard to explain this to an -outsider, but we know of what you call government only from the works -of the Master, who spoke of it as it was in the old days, in the old -Russia, the holy Russia." He lifted a hand to his face, and Heidekopfer -was dumbfounded to see the man was wiping away a tear. "There is the -patriarch, but he is only the general secretary of the Supreme Soviet."</p> - -<p>"Well, who makes the laws?"</p> - -<p>"The Supreme Soviet."</p> - -<p>"How are they elected—or chosen?"</p> - -<p>"We all agree on them."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer was saved from going mad by a cry from Ann Starnes. They -had passed through the cut into the hills and now, as they swung -round the brow of one, a wide valley lay spread before them under the -soft Venusian light. It was dotted with little clumps of trees and -had houses here and there, mostly low and with curiously bound-down -thatched roofs. With the green fields and grazing animals, it made -a scene of truly pastoral beauty. Ann said, "Tell him to stop for a -minute, will you? I want to get this."</p> - -<p>Behrmann looked at Heidekopfer. "Is it your will also that we stop?"</p> - -<p>"Sure, why not," said he. "Isn't even necessary to ask if the -girl-friend wants it. Do you have a law about women getting permission -for what they want to do, too?"</p> - -<p>"No. Stop, Pavel Josephovitch." He turned to Heidekopfer; "But the will -of one must become the will of all."</p> - -<p>"Now I don't understand," said Heidekopfer, as Ann adjusted her camera -to take a sweeping panorama of the valley. "Would you mind explaining?"</p> - -<p>"In happy Tolstoia when the desire of one person would cause others -to do what they might not desire, all must agree before it is done. -To allow anything else would be compulsion, and as the Master says; -'Anything that savors of compulsion is harmful.'"</p> - -<p>"I can see where there must be some prize family arguments in happy -Tolstoia," said Ann, in English. "Would I like to be married to a man -if I had to get his agreement every time I wanted to buy a new hat? No."</p> - -<p>"If you'll marry me you won't have to—" began Heidekopfer, but -Behrmann was speaking again:</p> - -<p>"It was not always so. When our people came from holy Russia, they were -like others on earth, with only the desire for universal brotherhood -and the writings of the Master to guide them. But there was so much -love among them and they obeyed the law so well that a hundred -thirty-one of our years ago, brotherhood was attained and the will of -all became the will of the one. Now it is possible for us to extend the -privilege of agreement to outsiders. This is why none who have felt it -wish to leave."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>By this time, they had almost caught up to the leading droshky, which -was just turning into a tree-lined alley at the end of which stood -quite the largest house they had yet seen. It had two stories and a -couple of jutting wings beside the central door. "This where we're -going?" asked Ann.</p> - -<p>"The residence of the Patriarch Pitrim Androvich Samsonov," said -Behrmann, with the sonorous accents of one who is aware of saying -something impressive.</p> - -<p>The others got out and waited for them. When they had assembled -Vikhranov led the procession, opening the door himself, and they found -themselves in a neat hall with whitewashed walls and plain chairs -standing against them. The light from the door was helped out by a -couple of candles in bracket holders on the wall. Vikhranov said, "You -will wait here," and turned through a door to the right. It could not -have been more than a couple of minutes before a tall, strong man -came out, wiping his hands on his smock, as though he had just been -interrupted in something. Heidekopfer experienced an almost physical -shock at the emanation of personality that seemed to flow from him. He -might equally have been a general or a prophet, but either way there -was no doubting that if he wanted somebody to do something, they would -probably do it. Ann too was affected. She lifted her camera and let -the photographing light play on the patriarch, but he moved his head -slightly, the light went out and she put the camera back to her belt, -an expression of awe suffusing her face.</p> - -<p>Vikhranov said, "Little Father, these are the ambassadors from the -Council. They did not tell me their names."</p> - -<p>Lanzerotti gave him a peculiar look and said, "I am the ambassador and -my name is Lanzerotti. This is—"</p> - -<p>The big man lifted a hand. "It is good for simplicity to address all -persons by their patronymics," he said. "Mine is Pitrim Androvich." -Instead of looking at Lanzerotti he was, staring fixedly at Ann.</p> - -<p>"Oh, I see," said the diplomat. "Well by that system, I suppose -you'd have to call me Vincent Guidovich. And this is my wife, -Rosa—uh—Mariovna."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer and Ann similarly identified themselves. Samsonov said, "We -will show you your rooms. Is it your custom to change the clothes after -travelling?"</p> - -<p>Rosa Lanzerotti spoke for the group, "I think I'd like to change my -shoes at least. They got rather muddy."</p> - -<p>Samsonov turned to Kazetzky: "Pyotr Ilyich, will you and the -horse-drivers bring the baggage of the ambassadors to the rooms in the -west wing, in the name of the Master? There is a special law that this -service may be performed for them."</p> - -<p>He reached out a hand, calmly took one of Ann's, and began to lead her -along the hall toward a door on the opposite side. There didn't seem to -be anything to do but follow.</p> - -<p>"Do you have any children?" said Samsonov, as he turned down a corridor -at right angles to the first. "It is Nature's way of life for women to -have children."</p> - -<p>Ann laughed. "I'm afraid not yet. I'm going to leave that until after -I'm married."</p> - -<p>"It is not against our law for women to have children before." Still -holding the girl's hand, he touched a door. "This room will belong to -you, Vincent Guidovich."</p> - -<p>The next was for Heidekopfer. The opened door showed a clean, plain -room with Venusian yellow poppies in a vase on a writing table, a bed -and a washstand with a pitcher of water. The walls were bare and there -didn't seem to be any plumbing. Outside the baggage was arriving. -Heidekopfer claimed his own, unpacked and put on a pair of clean shoes, -and went out to find Ann's door open and the girl engaged in a similar -task.</p> - -<p>He grumbled, "If that big bruiser keeps on making such a play for you, -it's going to be bad for international relations."</p> - -<p>She laughed. "He said he loved me—but in the brotherhood of man, -everyone must love everyone else. Then he let me take his picture. -Let's go check with the Lanzerottis before going to the audience." She -stood up.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">III</p> - - -<p>Lanzerotti was zipping open a bottle-container. "Well, Robert -Murrayovich, first impressions."</p> - -<p>"About what I would have expected from a regime founded on the ideas of -Tolstoi," said Heidekopfer, "and a rather screwy set-up. But my general -impression was not unfavorable. They seem to be running the place with -a decent respect for human values and each other."</p> - -<p>"'The will of all is the will of one,'" quoted Lanzerotti. "Did they -say that to you, too?" He took a couple of bottles of champagne from -the container. "I'm going to give our hosts a treat. It never hurts in -opening diplomatic negotiations. I suppose it's too early to ask yet, -but you didn't run onto anything that might be a clue to why we aren't -getting the castaways back?"</p> - -<p>"Nothing that you'd call a clue, but something that might have -a connection. Our guide told us that Tolstoia had attained the -brotherhood of man a hundred thirty-one Venus years ago. That's -eighty-one earth years, and strikes awful close to the date when -Unterbaum said the disappearances began."</p> - -<p>"Even so," said Ann, "I can't see a whole group of people who have been -brought up in civilization giving it up for this." She swept her hand -around the room, which was as bare as the others. "Especially that -dancer he mentioned."</p> - -<p>"A point," conceded Lanzerotti. "Shall we go?"</p> - -<p>He led the way back to the main hall. The door from which Samsonov had -emerged stood open, and there was a wide table in the room beyond, laid -with an array of dishes which held any number of hors d'oeuvres, while -eight or nine men and women were gathered about Samsonov. "You know -your Russian customs, all right," Heidekopfer murmured to Lanzerotti as -the patriarch came forward.</p> - -<p>He explained that these were the central committee of the Supreme -Soviet; there were introductions and Lanzerotti presented his -champagne, which Heidekopfer had to open because none of the Tolstoians -seemed to know how.</p> - -<p>Vikhranov said admiringly, "How beautiful is the play of bubbles in -this beverage!" as the ambassador lifted his glass, saying, "To the -future of Tolstoia!" bowed to Samsonov and drank.</p> - -<p>The patriarch's return bow was a trifle stiff, but he sipped—and -immediately appeared to become the victim of a revolution, spitting the -champagne on the floor and coughing with bulging eyes, while the others -gathered round him with expressions of sympathy. After a moment of -gasping recovery, he pushed them aside and said to Lanzerotti, "I taste -alcohol! Is it not so?"</p> - -<p>"To be sure," said the ambassador. "You can't very well make champagne -without it. Please accept my sincerest apologies for offering it to you -if it offends you, however."</p> - -<p>"We have a law against it in Tolstoia! The drinking of alcohol leads to -failure to recognize the brotherhood of man!"</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer said to Ann, "They had a law against alcohol in America -once, too, but as far as I can remember, it didn't keep people from -drinking."</p> - -<p>"Hush," she said, "I like to watch the way he holds his head."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Her eyes were fixed on Samsonov, who was returning the glance with -interest as he talked to the ambassador. Heidekopfer growled, helped -himself to some of the <i>zakuski</i> (which seemed to consist largely of -various kinds of pickled fish and vegetables, with some of the soft -Venusian <i>kara</i> nuts) and moved over to join the group around Rosa -Lanzerotti. Kazetzky was just saying, "It would pleasure me greatly, -little mother, if it is your will to allow me to show you some of the -natural beauty of happy Tolstoia tomorrow, while the others are making -their official observations."</p> - -<p>"Thank you," she said, "but I usually go with my husband on inspection -trips, when there are any, and I think I'd rather like to—" She broke -off suddenly with a frown between her brows, and Heidekopfer noticed -that the others in the group were staring at her with a quite peculiar -intensity. Kazetzky was swinging in his fingers some kind of little -bright ornament that he wore on a chain around his neck.</p> - -<p>Rosa Lanzerotti said slowly, "I think it would be very nice. You'll -have to call for me, though. I have no idea of what hours you keep in -Tolstoia."</p> - -<p>Kazetzky's lugubrious countenance took on an expression that was almost -a smile. "It shall be as you desire, little mother. The will of one is -the will of all."</p> - -<p>The group seemed to split apart, and Vikhranov's voice said in -Heidekopfer's ear, "Will you try some of our Tolstoian beer, Robert -Murrayovich?"</p> - -<p>"I thought you had a law against alcohol," said Heidekopfer, accepting -the proffered mug.</p> - -<p>"But beer is not alcohol. No one could become drunken from it. Besides, -we have a law against becoming drunken, too."</p> - -<p>The hell you say, thought Heidekopfer privately, and quaffed. It was -about as he suspected; the beer was certainly not 3.2. He said, "What's -the official schedule for us tomorrow?"</p> - -<p>"In the morning we visit a school and see how children are educated in -happy Tolstoia. If there is time we will also visit the grave of the -Patriarch Ilarion Triunfovich. In the afternoon, you will see one of -our collective farms. On the following day a picnic has been arranged. -It will last all day in accordance with our custom."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer frowned. "The school may be some help, and I don't doubt -that the farm will be. But in the nature of the report we have to make, -a visit to one of your law courts would be a lot more interesting than -a picnic, and a sitting of your Supreme Soviet more interesting still."</p> - -<p>Vikhranov's flat face showed disapproval. "The sittings of the Supreme -Soviet are in secret by law," he said. "We would have to pass a special -law admitting you, and I am not sure but it would be concisionary."</p> - -<p>"Excuse me. You seem to have developed a term there I have not heard -before. What does 'concisionary' mean?"</p> - -<p>The guide's disapproval surprisingly became sullenness. "Am I to blame -if you cannot understand good Russian?"</p> - -<p>"We went to some trouble to learn it, even getting records of Russian -as it was spoken at the time Tolstoia was founded, and I'm sorry if -I've given offense. But my friend, I'd have you remember that we're -here to do you a favor, not the other way round. Have you got a -dictionary?"</p> - -<p>"We have no need of dictionaries in happy Tolstoia. They are a part -of culture and culture is fatal to happiness. It is set down in the -Master's own words."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was saved from developing into a hassle as someone touched -Heidekopfer's arm to present him to Anna Golyevna Samsonova, a small -woman with dark hair, high cheek-bones and a mouth that seemed set -in a perpetual mysterious smile. She said, "Have you been in holy -Rrrrrussia, on earth, Robert Murrayovich?"</p> - -<p>"No, I haven't had that pleasure," he said, and added gallantly, "But -I'm sure this is better. You have made life so much simpler."</p> - -<p>"Yes, that is true. Here in happy Tolstoia the will of all is the will -of one, and the will of all is toward the good of all. All are happy."</p> - -<p>Her eyes darted past him, and he half-turned in time to see that -Samsonov was certainly displaying indisputable signs of happiness as -he talked to Ann, and what was a good deal worse, the girl was showing -no signs of unhappiness. Rather hastily, he said, "Don't you ever have -disagreements?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, yes. But they do not last long. And if one is not attuned, then he -takes the cure."</p> - -<p>"I see," said Heidekopfer, although he was reasonably sure he did not, -and was saved from more of this disjointed conversation by the ringing -of a bell, which Mrs. Samsonov said announced dinner. She led the way -through the side door to another large room, where there was a table -laid for dinner with steaming dishes already in place. Heidekopfer -noticed that the plates were of wood, and of the flatware beside them -only the knife-blades were metal. Everyone seemed to seat him or -herself where they pleased and fell to work at once on the food without -ceremony.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Samsonov said, "You may find our food difficult. People who come -here often do at first. But we have a law against eating meat except -while taking the cure."</p> - -<p>Difficult was the word for it, reflected Heidekopfer, munching away -at something that appeared to be a combination of cabbage and boiled -nuts with a sour sauce. He said, "You seem to have laws about almost -everything. Clothes, too?"</p> - -<p>She surveyed him with an air of puzzlement, and he noticed that in the -candlelight her eyes had a singularly deep quality. "Of course. How -would we know how to act without laws?"</p> - -<p>"Tell me, what does 'concisionary' mean?"</p> - -<p>"It means—" she gave him that glance again "—I don't quite know how -to define it, but something against the will of all. As you stay in -happy Tolstoia, you will understand." For a moment, looking into her -eyes, it seemed to Heidekopfer that he almost did understand. Then she -said, "Alexei Ivanovich is concisionary."</p> - -<p>"Who?"</p> - -<p>"Alexei Ivanovich Dubrassov. The traditionalist. He wished to become -patriarch when Pitrim Androvich did, but he would have led Tolstoia -back to the days before the brotherhood of man was achieved." She -looked around the table and clapped her hands as a signal that the meal -was over, and a couple of girls came hurrying in to gather the plates.</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer said, "Pardon me, but didn't someone tell me that you had a -law against serving one another?"</p> - -<p>"It is the will of all that the patriarch be served," she said. Nobody -seemed to be leaving the table and the reason became apparent when two -men with goose-necked stringed instruments came in, accompanied by a -girl who began to sing as they played. The music had certain haunting -strains, but was so disjointed that Heidekopfer decided he didn't like -it, and looked down the table to see how the others were taking it. He -got a shock. Samsonov, seated between Rosa Lanzerotti and Ann, had his -arm around the latter's shoulders, and she was leaning back with her -eyes half-closed and the smile of a smug kitten.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">IV</p> - - -<p>Ann's voice sounded vaguely apologetic as she explained to Heidekopfer. -"His wife didn't seem to mind," she said. "I was watching her."</p> - -<p>"That isn't the point," said Heidekopfer. "It isn't even the point that -I minded a hell of a lot. As you have so often informed me, I don't own -you or even have a claim on you, much as I'd like to. I just want to -know <i>why</i> you did it."</p> - -<p>The girl's lips closed and her pretty face set in obstinate lines. -"Because I wanted to. Because I felt like it. For the same reason I've -kissed you a few times."</p> - -<p>"But you've never kissed me with about sixteen people looking on. And -may I point out that the reason the castaways stayed in Tolstoia was -because they wanted to, too. I want to know what made you want to do -it."</p> - -<p>"And you're going to put the whip on me to find out," said the girl, -but with a smile. "No use, Bob—call it an uncontrollable impulse."</p> - -<p>Someone tapped at the door and it was Lanzerotti. "Want to come into my -room?" he said. "I'd like to compare notes, and if we do it here, two -of us will have to sit on the bed."</p> - -<p>"All right," said Heidekopfer. "Rosa back yet?"</p> - -<p>"No, still communing with nature and Pyotr Ilyich Kazetzky." He glanced -at his watch, saying, "I forgot that's no good here on the different -system of time, but I'd guess that it's a good hour before bedtime, so -I'm not going to worry. Come on." He led the way down the hall, and -threw open the door.</p> - -<p>"Notice there isn't a lock in the place?" said Heidekopfer. "It may -really be true that they've abolished crime."</p> - -<p>"I didn't see any either," said Lanzerotti, "but we have to be careful -about drawing conclusions from guided tours. The Russians have always -been great on setting up Potemkin villages."</p> - -<p>"Oh, back in the old imperial days an Empress named Catherine went on -a progress through the country to see how it was getting along under -her prime minister, Potemkin. He went ahead of her and had villages set -up, just the dummy fronts of houses, with actors to play the part of -villagers. Back in the Soviet period they used to pull the same trick, -to show tourists how prosperous the country was, only they did it with -real model villages and factories and people working in them."</p> - -<p>"I don't think they're doing that with us," said Heidekopfer. "On the -way to the school, I asked to turn off and see one of the farms we -passed, and it all seemed perfectly normal and in key with the rest."</p> - -<p>"Shall I get the pictures?" said Ann. "That white wall is rather rough, -but I imagine it will take projection."</p> - -<p>"No, they're for the record," said Lanzerotti. "I just want a verbal -report and impressions." He stepped across the room and opened the -sound box for recording.</p> - -<p>"Well," said Heidekopfer, "we went to a school this morning. It was -quite small, but had children of all ages up to about sixteen. It was -more like a manual training institute than what we'd call a school. -Most of them were learning to use tools, and some of them working in a -garden, and doing a pretty good job of it, I'd say. There was only one -class with books."</p> - -<p>"I asked about that," said Ann. "They practically don't have any books, -and those they do have are hand set and hand printed."</p> - -<p>"Of course, I can understand their not using microfilm," said -Heidekopfer. "That would run into their prohibition of machines. But I -don't quite see how they can claim a printing press isn't a machine."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Lanzerotti smiled. "Logic isn't the long suit of most theorists," he -said. "However, my opinion is generally favorable. They seem to be -decent people with a high standard of morality, and in spite of the -Potemkin village angle, it looks good. There's just one thing—we still -haven't found any explanation of why the castaways didn't come back. -And that is primarily why we came here."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer said, "We can add a second point to that now—or perhaps -it's part of the same one. Did you notice Ann after dinner last night -while the music was playing?"</p> - -<p>Lanzerotti said, "I did notice that she seemed on fairly good terms -with our host on somewhat short notice, but I assumed it was her own -business."</p> - -<p>"The trouble is that she can't tell why she did it," said Heidekopfer.</p> - -<p>A little spot of red appeared in the girl's cheeks. "I told you because -I felt like it," she said, "and I'm not particularly grateful for being -pumped about it! Excuse me, I've got to charge my camera while you -discuss my case." She got up, avoided Heidekopfer's protesting hand, -and slipped out the door.</p> - -<p>Lanzerotti said, "The case seems to call for diplomacy, and as -the diplomat of the expedition, I prescribe a cooling-off period. -Meanwhile, continue."</p> - -<p>"There isn't much to continue with," said Heidekopfer, rubbing his chin -thoughtfully. "You know as well as I do that her behavior with Samsonov -wasn't—well, what you'd normally expect, even if it wasn't disgraceful -or anything. But it seems to me that it's of a piece with the behavior -of the castaways who decided to stay in Tolstoia. In both cases, there -was what she herself described as an uncontrollable impulse to do -something not normally done."</p> - -<p>"Evidence of pattern," said Lanzerotti. "You think pressure was applied -from outside. But how? Was the food or the beer drugged? No, it -couldn't have been that; we ate and drank the same things, and weren't -affected."</p> - -<p>"I don't know," said Heidekopfer. "It could have been a special for -her. Samsonov hardly took his eyes off her from the first time he saw -her."</p> - -<p>"I—" began Lanzerotti, when a tap sounded on the door and Rosa -Lanzerotti came into the room. "Hello, dear," she said, "have a good -day?"</p> - -<p>"Good with a little mystery in it, which we were just discussing. And -you?"</p> - -<p>She laughed. "The same. In fact, if you're up to a trip, the day isn't -over yet."</p> - -<p>"What do you mean?"</p> - -<p>"There's a man outside with a droshky to take us to see someone who -wants to meet you. I'll tell you the rest as we go. It might be a good -idea if you come along, too, Bob. Wait till I get a recorder." She went -over to get one of the small size that fits in a pocket, and the other -two stood up. Heidekopfer stopped to tap at Ann's door, but she didn't -answer, so he stopped at his own room long enough to slip a light in -his pocket, as it had grown quite dark outside. There was no one in -the dimly-lighted halls; apparently most good Tolstoians had decided -to call it a night. Outside, the heavy night mist which pinch-hits -for most of Venus' rain was drifting past in streamers, condensing on -everything it touched; Heidekopfer felt drops run down his face.</p> - -<p>Rosa said, "He's waiting at the corner of the road, and I was warned -not to let myself be seen, so you had better not put on the light now.</p> - -<p>"Damn!" said Lanzerotti, stumbling. "All right, Rosa, what's the story?"</p> - -<p>"We drove around most of the day looking at various views, while this -Kazetzky person explained to me how beautiful it all was. It was, too. -Stopped at a house where they were weaving cloth on a wooden hand -loom and had some lunch, then drove around again. Kazetzky is not an -interesting talker, as I began to realize about the fifteenth time -he repeated his line about nature and happiness being connected. But -toward dinner time he said, 'Ah! I shall take you to have a repast with -a man who has in him much of the spirit of the Master.'"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>They had reached the end of the drive, and in the dark could just -make out the loom of the droshky. A voice said, "Little mother?" Rosa -answered, "Okay, it's me," and Heidekopfer flashed his light briefly to -enable them to climb into the vehicle. When they were seated and the -driver had stirred his horse into action with the inevitable crack of -the whip, Rosa went on, "He took me a little distance, little enough -so it looked as though he'd been intending to do that all along, to a -house almost as big as the one we're living in. Only the owner wasn't -living in it, he was living in a tent pitched in a field outside by -a stream. His name is Dubrassov, by the way. Kazetzky introduced me, -and then went to the house and brought the family out and introduced -them, too, ten or twelve of them. Dubrassov said I must bring you here -at once, tonight, before it was too late, to hear something terribly -important. They all said yes, I must, and then asked me whether I -wanted to eat with the family or Dubrassov. Of course I said Dubrassov, -and that was my big mistake. The meal consisted of a whitish liquid -that tasted like turpentine and burned like it—"</p> - -<p>"Kumiss," said Heidekopfer. "It has a kick, too."</p> - -<p>"Apparently they have exceptions to their law about liquor. Anyway, -I drank water. As I say, the meal consisted entirely of this kumiss -and meat, nothing else, and we had to eat it with our fingers. He -apologized for it, I will say, and said he was taking a cure of some -kind. A diet like that would cure me of wanting to live."</p> - -<p>For a moment there was silence as the droshky jounced along. Then -Lanzerotti's voice said out of the dark, "Evidently there are -disagreements, even in happy Tolstoia, and I'm grateful for the -opportunity to learn what they are. But this whole business has -a rather conspiratorial odor, and I'm not sure that a diplomatic -representative should be mixed up in it. If you don't mind my saying -so, Rosa, you might have given us a chance to discuss all the angles -before getting us out of the house."</p> - -<p>"But I couldn't do anything else, could I?" Her voice sounded hurt.</p> - -<p>The horse's feet clopped in the muddy road. Heidekopfer made a sound -like the beginning of speech, then stopped.</p> - -<p>"Beg pardon?" said Rosa.</p> - -<p>"I just wondered—why didn't you come with us to see the school today? -I should have thought you'd find it interesting."</p> - -<p>"Oh, there's plenty of time. Besides, if I hadn't gone out to see the -country with Kazetzky, I wouldn't have met Dubrassov."</p> - -<p>Lanzerotti stirred in his place and said, "By the way, Bob, while you -and Ann were looking over that farm this afternoon, I addressed myself -to the matter of communications. They don't have to have any, except -by word of mouth; the society is so static that there isn't anything -requiring quick action by a large number of people, and they can afford -to wait."</p> - -<p>"Find out anything more about the governmental system?"</p> - -<p>"They're disinclined to talk, but I gather it's an almost unchanged -adaptation of the Soviet system. Which might be expected, seeing their -ancestors came from there, and there's nothing in Tolstoi that would -conflict with the system. As a matter of historical process, I'm a bit -surprised that there should have been so little evolution—"</p> - -<p>"Hell!" said Heidekopfer. "Vincent, when you get to talking theory, -you're three parsecs over my head. I just want to know what makes -things tick in a practical way."</p> - -<p>"The difference is doubtless one of the reasons why we were associated -in this mission," said Lanzerotti evenly, and that seemed to put a -period to the conversation in the dark until Rosa said, "This must be -it. See that light in the tent?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Heidekopfer flipped on his light and set it in the catch-ring of his -hat. The beam diffused through the drifting mist to catch a wooden -house painted white and with shutters, on quaint, old-fashioned lines. -It was all dark. The droshky pushed on past, bumping off the road -across a field toward where a light showed dimly through the wall of -a circular tent, and came to a halt. Lanzerotti jumped out and handed -Rosa down after him. She approached and said, "May I come in?"</p> - -<p>A deep voice boomed, "In the name of the Master, enter, little mother," -and the three went in. They saw a powerful looking man, not as big -as Samsonov, but with the same indefinable air of force, who barked, -"Dubrassov, Alexei Ivanovich," and promptly sat down in the only chair -in the tent.</p> - -<p>This time the ambassadors knew the right reply. They made it, Rosa sat -down on the bed, the others curled up on the ground floor of the tent -and waited. Dubrassov glanced from Lanzerotti to Heidekopfer and back -with quick motions of his head and neck thrust forward, as though he -were trying to see into their minds. Finally he said, "They make me -take the cure as concisionary, but it is not I who am the concisionary, -it is Pitrim Androvich."</p> - -<p>"Indeed," said Lanzerotti.</p> - -<p>"It is Pitrim Androvich," Dubrassov repeated. "The will of all is the -will of one, but he makes the will of one the will of all."</p> - -<p>"I thought the two went together," said Heidekopfer.</p> - -<p>The burning eyes were fixed on him. "Are you the ambassador? It is -anti-social to interrupt deliberations."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer felt himself flush a little, but said nothing. He could -hear the buzz of Rosa's recorder.</p> - -<p>"I am the ambassador," said Lanzerotti smoothly. "But I am accredited -to the government of Tolstoia, and so far as I am aware, you are a -private citizen. However, I will be glad to hear anything you have to -say that may affect the question of whether the World Council should -allow Tolstoia to colonize the Wrightley Islands."</p> - -<p>"Pitrim Androvich wishes the world, even holy Russia." He paused -and blew his nose at the name, his Adam's apple moving. Heidekopfer -remembered Behrmann. "You should n-n-n—" He stopped suddenly, gagging -for breath, his eyes bulging, and then closed his mouth and tried -again. "The achievement of universal brotherhood makes the will of all -the will of one. It is possible to control the will of one for—" He -gagged again, his mouth open, then closed his eyes with a grimace and -said, "It is against the law to say more. Beware! And go, in the name -of the Master."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">V</p> - - -<p>The fact that Venusian trees of every species tend to trail their -branches on the ground makes no particular difference; with -approximately one day's direct sunshine during a Venusian year, shade -is less important than what the tree produces and the decoration it -provides. Neither, reflected Heidekopfer, would it particularly matter -to people who were used to it that everything was mildly damp to the -touch. The members of the Supreme Soviet scattered on the bank of the -little natural amphitheatre around him seemed to be having a thoroughly -good time, laughing, talking, drinking beer and listening to the music -of the goose-necked instruments, which tinkled from group to group. He -felt lonely, and Ann was somewhere else.</p> - -<p>There was a touch on his shoulder and Lanzerotti sat down beside him, -saying in a low voice, "All right, but talk fast. And smile now and -then, so it will look casual. I understand how you couldn't discuss it -last night with Rosa in the droshky."</p> - -<p>"She got angry," said Heidekopfer. "Just like Ann."</p> - -<p>"And you think you have the explanation?"</p> - -<p>"You said something about pattern. It makes one. Mass hypnotism."</p> - -<p>Lanzerotti gestured with one hand, as though he were pointing to the -group around them. "I find that difficult to credit. The thing hasn't -existed since the days of the dictators and their wars."</p> - -<p>"Remember that these people are the overflow of a totalitarian state. -And I don't mean mass hypnotism with one person hypnotizing many, as -among the old dictators, but with the group exerting mass pressure on -one person. The will of all is the will of one."</p> - -<p>Lanzerotti smiled. "I think you misinterpret. There is undoubtedly some -pressure from what might be called public opinion, but—"</p> - -<p>"Listen!" cried Heidekopfer, desperately. "It all fits together. -Kazetzky twirled something bright in his fingers when he asked Rosa to -spend the day with him, and all of them rallied round. They've achieved -some kind of mental integration and they want to expand—"</p> - -<p>Lanzerotti laid a hand on his knee. "You're talking too loud. And I -think on the wrong lines. The nature of this development is essentially -elymosynnary—"</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer experienced a sensation of being surrounded by stone -walls as two of the Tolstoians stood over them. One was a member of -the Supreme Soviet whose name he had, of course, forgotten, and the -other was a remarkably pretty girl with ash-blond hair pulled back -from a well-shaped forehead. He got up, as the man from the Supreme -Soviet said, "Sonia Grigorevna is the cousin of the patriarch Pitrim -Androvich."</p> - -<p>"Heidekopfer, Robert Murrayovich," said Heidekopfer, dutifully.</p> - -<p>Lanzerotti repeated his part of the formula, but the girl seemed to be -concentrating on the reporter. "Is it not a joy to be in this beautiful -countryside?" she said, looking at him directly.</p> - -<p>"I find it so."</p> - -<p>"Would it be your will to let me show you some of the flowers of happy -Tolstoia?" she said.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>If he were right, this was his chance to get one of them apart from the -rest, where the group pressure would presumably be less effective. He -said, "It would please me very much."</p> - -<p>She reached out a hand to take his. "Come," and led the way across the -bowl of green. A group of men and women stood in their path. "We are -going to look at flowers together," the girl announced gaily. "Pitrim -Androvich thinks it would be good."</p> - -<p>They all seemed to find something delightfully humorous in this, and -there was a burst of laughter as they crowded round. "Flowers are -nature's key to happiness!" boomed one of the men, patting Heidekopfer -on the shoulder. "You will see what fine ones we produce in happy -Tolstoia."</p> - -<p>He was suddenly aware that they were staring at him with a peculiar -intensity in the midst of their animated movements, and of a slight -tension, like the beginning of a headache, at the back of his neck. -This must be it; he was being high-pressured for some purpose. It was -understandable how they would call this the brotherhood of man ... how -they had developed the ability to put mass hypnotic pressure on any -individual ... how the castaways had been similarly pressured into -adopting the Tolstoian way of life ... how—</p> - -<p>Sonia Grigorevna's voice came through his reverie, "Are you dreaming, -little father? Let us go."</p> - -<p>He shook himself a little, like a dog coming out of water. "By all -means, let us go." She was really beautiful, not with the broad Slavic -features at all, but a narrow face and high cheek-bones that must have -come from some remote Nordic ancestor.</p> - -<p>The others waved hands as she led him up the gentle slope at the edge -of the bowl, and pushed through a screen of trees into a field of lush -grass. There was a string of bushes toward the river-bank. "The best -flowers are there," said Sonia.</p> - -<p>"Tell me," he said, "when someone really does not want to do something -the rest want, how do you make them do it?"</p> - -<p>She gave him a glance of puzzlement. "I do not understand. We do not -make them do it. It is the word of the Master that everything savoring -of compulsion is harmful."</p> - -<p>Pretty neat, he thought ... just like the Russian Soviets of the old -days, who got away with dictatorship by calling it democracy. Aloud he -said, "I know. But don't you ever have—deviationists?"</p> - -<p>"Oh no. The will of all is the will of one. That is the brotherhood of -man. But if a person doubts whether his will is fully given, he takes -the cure. That is the law. This way."</p> - -<p>She pushed through the bushes and they were on a slope above the river, -starred with red poppy-like flowers. "Are they not beautiful? Let us -sit here and contemplate them. The contemplation of nature is the -source of happiness."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer lowered himself to the damp grass, blessing the forethought -that had led him to dress in waterproof nylon. "They're very nice," he -said, "but when did you Tolstoians discover the brotherhood of man?"</p> - -<p>She settled herself comfortably against him. "I am not certain of the -date. But it was in the time of the Patriarch Ilarion Triunfovich, -long ago. Is it your will that we cease talking of material things and -address ourselves to what we see?" She snuggled against him, and the -pressure was not at all unendurable.</p> - -<p>He placed a hand on one of hers. "Just one more question. When people -come from the—outside, do you always will them to stay?"</p> - -<p>"We do not need to. Everyone wishes to stay in happy Tolstoia. See how -that blossom shakes on its stalk."</p> - -<p>Except those who come back in boxes, he thought, and wondered how he -could broach the subject, but before he could think out a way, she -lifted his hand beneath her own and pressed it softly against her -cheek. He turned to look at her; her lips were slightly parted as she -lifted her lovely face toward his....</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> - <div class="caption"> - <p>He turned to look at her; her lips were slightly parted as she lifted her lovely face toward his.</p> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>And it struck him like a thunderbolt why the others had laughed when -Sonia said they were going to see flowers at Samsonov's suggestion, and -what the pressure had been on him for. He said abruptly, "Do you know -where Ann went—the photographer who was with us?"</p> - -<p>"To look at flowers with Pitrim Androvich." Her glance was neither -disappointed nor hostile, merely a trifle wide-eyed as though she had -just discovered something frightening. She let his hand drop.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">VI</p> - - -<p>So that was the play, thought Heidekopfer, a trifle grimly. The -Patriarch was going to make off with Ann while providing him with a -substitute and putting the heat on him to accept. He scrambled up and -reached a hand to Sonia Grigorevna. "Let's get back to the others, if -it is your will."</p> - -<p>Later, back with the others Heidekopfer confided his ideas. "If you -will forgive me," said Lanzerotti, "I find your theory slightly -fantastic."</p> - -<p>"So do I," said Rosa. "I haven't been conscious of any sense of -pressure or the headachy feeling you mention, and I haven't done a -thing I didn't really want to do."</p> - -<p>They were sitting in the ambassador's room at the Samsonov house, and -it was not yet dark enough to make the candles necessary, although -they were lighted. Ann wasn't there. Heidekopfer drew a long breath. -"The only thing I can suggest is that you have been influenced too, -to some extent. Come on, look at it objectively. Won't you admit the -possibility?"</p> - -<p>"As a matter of principle, yes," said Lanzerotti. "This is an island -culture in the sense that it has been cut off from contact with others, -and I'm well aware that island races often develop on aberrant lines. -But I see no signs of the compulsions you mention."</p> - -<p>"Not even Dubrassov? When he tried to warn us about something and -couldn't?"</p> - -<p>Lanzerotti smiled. "I'm afraid Dubrassov's case is a rather simple one -of hallucination. It was explained to me this afternoon. They don't -lock up their mental cases here; they simply let them take that cure, -which amounts to a kind of shock-treatment in view of their usual -habits."</p> - -<p>"Damn it!" said Heidekopfer, but Lanzerotti held up a hand. "Listen, -Bob," he said, "I quite understand your annoyance and the reason for -it. And I will say that I'm a little surprised at Ann's behavior with -our friend the Patriarch. But that's a purely personal matter, and -shouldn't be allowed to cloud the diplomatic issue, which is above -personalities. And on that level I haven't encountered anything to -justify your apprehensions."</p> - -<p>"The evidence of pattern? You mentioned it once before. The suicides?"</p> - -<p>"The suicides were just suicides. I hinted at the matter and one of -them—I think it was Vikhranov—came right out with the explanation -without even being asked. It seems that the suicide cases among the -castaways were people who had some strong tie or reason for going back, -but still couldn't bear to leave Tolstoia once they got here. A simple -case of a conflict they were unable to resolve."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer got up and began to pace the floor, his brow set in a -frown. "Well, anyway," he said at last, "I might as well tell you that -I'm doing something practical about what you call my apprehensions. -After what developed at the picnic I radioed South Bergenland for a -helio. It will be here tonight, and I'm going back on it and taking Ann -with me. I advise you to come, too."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Rosa Lanzerotti trilled a little laugh. "I don't think you'll find Ann -particularly grateful—or particularly willing," she said.</p> - -<p>"Then by God I'll get help to make her willing!" cried Heidekopfer.</p> - -<p>"Wait—" began Lanzerotti, but he was already out the door and almost -running down the corridor toward the apartment occupied by the -Samsonovs. Not knowing what the custom was, he knocked. A female voice -said, "Enter, in the name of the Master."</p> - -<p>Mrs. Samsonov, looking as mysterious as ever, was sitting beside a -table with one of the girls who served at table, sewing on something. -"Good evening, Robert Murrayovich," she said. "Pitrim Androvich is out -this evening."</p> - -<p>"As a matter of fact, it was you that I wanted to see," he said, "and -alone, if possible."</p> - -<p>She glanced at the girl. "Is it your will to leave at the desire of the -little father?"</p> - -<p>"The will of one is the will of all," said the girl, picked up her -sewing and went through a door at the back as Mrs. Samsonov faced -Heidekopfer. "What is it you desire to say, Robert Murrayovich?"</p> - -<p>He hesitated. "Well, it's rather difficult, and I hope you won't be -offended—but—"</p> - -<p>"In happy Tolstoia we do not take offense at what Nature gives us to -do."</p> - -<p>"That's very nice of you. Well, it's about Miss Starnes—Ann -Samuelovna."</p> - -<p>"She is very beautiful."</p> - -<p>"That's just the trouble, I'm afraid. Did you know that she went to -look at flowers with your husband this afternoon?"</p> - -<p>Anna Gulyevna's smile became a trifle more Mona Lisa than before, if -possible. "Yes, I knew it."</p> - -<p>"And it doesn't worry you? Not even a little bit?"</p> - -<p>"Not even a little bit, Robert Murrayovich."</p> - -<p>"And he told her she should have children."</p> - -<p>"It is good to have children." She smiled again at his hopeless -expression and laid down her sewing. "Listen, Robert Murrayovich, and -I will tell you how it is in happy Tolstoia. We have a law that a -husband and wife must remain faithful to each other. So that if Pitrim -Androvich looks at flowers with Ann Samuelovna, or even touches and -kisses her, it is because he thinks she is beautiful, like a part of -nature. Even though he is Patriarch he cannot break the law."</p> - -<p>"But damn it!" said Heidekopfer. "I want to marry her myself!"</p> - -<p>"Is it her will also? The will of one must become the will of all."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer experienced a violent sense of frustration. "Look here," -he said, "I know you have means of influencing the way people think -about things. Can't you give me a little help with Ann?"</p> - -<p>She lifted one hand and placed it beside her cheek. "She has achieved -the brotherhood of man, and I think she will want to become a citizen -of happy Tolstoia," she said. "If she does, the only way would be for -the Supreme Soviet to pass a law that she must marry you. Thus the will -of all becomes the will of one."</p> - -<p>"But I don't want to stay in Tolstoia," said Heidekopfer, "I—"</p> - -<p>Outside the door someone shouted, "In the name of the Master, may I -enter?"</p> - -<p>"Enter," called Anna Gulyevna, and the door opened on Kazetzky. His -expression looked even more morose than usual. He said to Heidekopfer, -"I am glad you are here, little father. Good evening Anna Gulyevna—I -am the bearer of unhappy news."</p> - -<p>"Unhappiness cannot remain long in happy Tolstoia," said Anna Gulyevna -gravely. "What is your news, Pyotr Ilyich?"</p> - -<p>"Pitrim Androvich is very desirous of the foreign woman. He has called -a session of the Supreme Soviet for tonight, and will propose a law -that a man may have two wives, so that he can marry her."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer saw Anna Gulyevna's hands tense in her lap and the secret -smile dropped from her face. "That is most unhappy news, Pyotr Ilyich," -she said.</p> - -<p>"See here," said Heidekopfer, "can't something be done about this?" He -looked at Kazetzky. "You're a member of the Supreme Soviet, aren't you? -Can't you oppose the bill on the ground that it's—concisionary, or -something?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>But they shook their heads, looking at him gloomily. "Well, by God, I'm -going to do something about it if nobody else does," he said, getting -to his feet. "Where's this meeting being held?"</p> - -<p>Kazetzky did not move. "It is even worse than you think, little -father. Pitrim Androvich will propose a law of suicide against you."</p> - -<p>Anna Gulyevna gasped and put one hand to her mouth. Heidekopfer looked -bewildered. "What have I done and what's a law of suicide?" he asked.</p> - -<p>"You are a resistant," said Kazetzky. "It was the will of all that you -fall in love with the girl Sonia Grigorevna whom you took to look at -flowers this afternoon, but it did not become your will. Therefore, it -is evident that you are resistant to the will of all. We always pass -laws of suicide against resistants, especially if they are foreigners. -It is the only way of maintaining the brotherhood of man."</p> - -<p>"I see," said Heidekopfer, and he did, with a sudden horrible clarity. -So this was what had happened to the castaways! And how many others had -been wiped out in these self-inflicted purges since they established -their "brotherhood of man?" The hackles on his neck were rising, but he -managed a laugh. "Well, if I'm a resistant, I guess I'm not going to -worry about it too much."</p> - -<p>Anna Gulyevna's face looked a trifle pale, even in the candlelight. -"You do not know the strength of a law of suicide," she said. "It makes -use of the death-wish, and those against whom it is passed cannot sleep -until they sleep forever."</p> - -<p>"Do you mean I have to take it lying down? I'm damned if I do!" He took -four quick steps across the room, tore open the door and started down -the hall. Kazetzky's voice behind him said, "A moment, little father."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer faced him. "Well?"</p> - -<p>"What are you going to do, little father?"</p> - -<p>"See Lanzerotti—Vincent Guidovich. He's the ambassador of the Council, -and he isn't going to let anything like this go on."</p> - -<p>"It will do you no good. This has happened before. He has accepted the -will of all, and will not believe you until the law has been passed. -When the two new laws are passed and the foreign woman has married -Pitrim Androvich, then you will commit suicide, and he will say, 'Ah, -that is the reason he did it.'"</p> - -<p>"You're so full of bright ideas you just slay me," said Heidekopfer -with a wry twist to his mouth. "But I don't think you'd be batting them -up unless you had something in mind. Come on, out with it."</p> - -<p>Kazetzky said, "If you could leave Tolstoia and return where you came -from before the law was passed, I do not think you would be in danger. -There would be too many people around you with confused thoughts who do -not belong to the brotherhood of man."</p> - -<p>"And leave Ann behind to marry that old goat? No, I think not."</p> - -<p>Kazetzky said, "Then there is only one thing to do. That is to go to -the session of the Supreme Soviet and try to prevent the laws being -passed. You are a resistant, and it is possible you could make their -thinking confused enough."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer glanced at him sharply. "You want me to, don't you? What's -your interest in this?"</p> - -<p>"I am a supporter of Alexei Ivanovich Dubrassov. He is a traditionalist -who does not believe happy Tolstoia should be extended as Pitrim -Androvich wishes. If the law of suicide is not passed and you report -against giving us the islands, there will be a law of suicide against -Pitrim Androvich, and Alexei Ivanovich will be Patriarch."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer laughed shortly. "I thought there'd be some -chestnut-pulling connected with this somewhere. How come that the will -of all the others to follow the Patriarch's plan didn't affect you and -Dubrassov, too?"</p> - -<p>The man's face went sullen. "You have no right to ask me questions like -that," he said.</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer reflected that the development of their mental integration -had not made the Tolstoians any the less Russian. "All right, let's -go," he said. "Is it far?"</p> - -<p>"At the schoolhouse. I have a droshky which I took to bring Anna -Gulyevna the news. It is not good to let bad news delay until the will -of one becomes a resistance."</p> - -<p>"Okay. Wait just a minute, will you, while I get my pocket radio. I've -got some friends coming who may be some help, and I might want to get -in touch with them."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">VII</p> - - -<p>The lights behind the windows of the schoolhouse made vague islands in -the dark pennons of mist. Kazetzky got out and tied the horse to the -hitching-rail as Heidekopfer dismounted. "Go in, little father," he -said. "I will stay outside as long as I can." He was breathing hard, as -though trying with all his strength to resist some kind of compulsion.</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer checked the sets of his radio, walked to the door and flung -it open. The fifteen or twenty men and women of the Supreme Soviet were -seated in chairs scattered in no particular order around the classroom, -with Samsonov at the teacher's desk, his back to Heidekopfer as the -latter entered. But the thing that made the reporter catch his breath -as the faces turned toward him like flowers toward the sun was the -sight of Ann Starnes, sitting just to the right of the Patriarch. Her -glance was coldly unfriendly.</p> - -<p>For a second or two the tableau held. Then Samsonov turned round and -rose majestically to his feet. "The session of the Supreme Soviet is -secret," he said, and glared.</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer once more felt the headache sensation at the back of his -neck, accompanied by an almost overwhelming impulse to get out of -there, to escape from that place before something dreadful happened, a -strange malaise, which he could not name possessed him. He staggered -back a step, then caught Ann's eye fixed on him with the same quality -as the rest, and was abruptly seized by another impulse, even more -overwhelming.</p> - -<p>The second one struck him as a better idea, anyway, so he yielded to -it. He took three rapid steps toward the Patriarch Samsonov and let him -have one fetched up from the region of the belt-line.</p> - -<p>It took the big man flush on the button, and down he went, thrashing -and kicking, as the room burst into a turmoil of shouts and chairs -knocked to the floor. Ann screamed. Heidekopfer grabbed her by the arm. -"You're coming with me whether you like it or not," he said in English, -and turned to face the group menacingly. But nobody seemed inclined to -offer him any opposition, and the thought flashed through his head that -they probably had a law against physical violence, too.</p> - -<p>Samsonov had hauled himself to his feet with the aid of the desk. There -was a little trickle of blood from his mouth and his eyes were deadly. -The last thing Heidekopfer heard him say as he pulled the girl through -the door was, "There will be a law—"</p> - -<p>Kazetzky had disappeared. Ann was limp as he bundled her into the -droshky, and didn't say anything until he had unhitched the horse, -climbed to the driver's seat, and with a combination of yells and -jerking on the reins, urged it into plodding motion. Then she said, -"Oh, Bob!"</p> - -<p>He didn't turn around. "Yeah. What is it?"</p> - -<p>"I was hating you. I knew they were going to pass a law that you should -commit suicide, and I was going to help them."</p> - -<p>"Nice of you."</p> - -<p>"When you hit him, something happened. It was like coming out of a dark -room into the sunlight.... Bob!"</p> - -<p>"What is it?"</p> - -<p>"I think I need a keeper. I'll marry you when we get back—if we ever -do." She began to cry.</p> - -<p>This time he swung round on the seat. "Listen, angel," he said, "I want -you just enough to take you up on that, whether it's on a rebound or -not. But are you sure you're out from under the control that big lug -seemed to have snapped on you?"</p> - -<p>"I—I—think so. But I don't know how long it will last. Get me out of -here, quick!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Overhead, a beam of light stabbed down through the crowding mist, just -picking out the corner of Samsonov's house a few hundred yards beyond -them, and there was a sound of ghostly wings. The beam shifted, ran -along a line of trees, and then satisfied itself with an open field.</p> - -<p>"The helio," said Heidekopfer. "I radioed for one on the chance I could -get you away." He tried to urge the horse to greater speed as lights -came on in the building and the aircraft swung in for a landing in a -pool of its own illumination. Abruptly, the headache sensation took -him in the back of the neck again, stronger than ever, accompanied by -an intolerable sense of depression, and the night was suddenly full -of horrors ahead. It was not worth the trouble. He felt the reins -loosening in his hands. "Ann!" he cried, "Ann ..." and blacked out.</p> - -<p>He came to to the sound of purring motors and struggled to sit up. -Someone said, "Give him this," and a cup of coffee was held against his -lips. He looked up into Ann's face.</p> - -<p>"Still feel the same way you did in the droshky?" was the first thing -he said as he drank.</p> - -<p>"Sssh. Yes," she said, and he looked round to see the Lanzerottis -smiling at him across the cabin of the helio. He struggled upright on -the transom. "That was a narrow one," he said. "I think they must have -passed the law of suicide against me. But I can't figure out how it -would affect me so. They said I was a resistant."</p> - -<p>Lanzerotti said, "Thought can operate without physical presence. The -Christian Scientists and Theosophists on earth knew that years ago. And -this was a rather massive impact."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer shook his head. "Give me a little more of that stuff, will -you? I'm still a little groggy. What I can't figure out is how you two -got away and came along."</p> - -<p>"We were talking about that," said Lanzerotti. "Rosa and I were just -getting ready for bed, when it suddenly struck us that everything you -had said was true, and the Tolstoians had us under control and were -showing us, in effect, a Potemkin village. When you knocked Samsonov -out, even for only a moment, the control snapped on us as it did on -Ann. Then he got so interested in passing the law of suicide against -you that he didn't have time to rebuild his fences. So we got away, but -we had to leave most of the records."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer drank again. "I don't suppose it makes much difference, -though," he said. "Our verbal report ought to be enough to keep the -Council from giving them the Wrightley Islands. My God, if that thing -got loose! With what they've developed they'd be able to take over -every inch of the three worlds, little by little, and turn them into -more Tolstoias."</p> - -<p>"No," said Lanzerotti emphatically.</p> - -<p>"No what?"</p> - -<p>"My recommendation will be that we grant them the Wrightley Islands and -any other bits of uninhabited territory they happen to want—but only -for so long as Samsonov remains Patriarch."</p> - -<p>Heidekopfer's mouth fell open. "What!" he exclaimed aghast, "Has he -still got you under?"</p> - -<p>Lanzerotti's smile was bland. "Not at all. They've attained the goal of -the totalitarian state. They've got everybody thinking alike. Remember, -Dubrassov couldn't warn us, even when he wanted to, although he -couldn't bring himself to go along with Samsonov's expansionist policy. -Samsonov showed us Potemkin villages, all right. But don't you see what -all this crazy set-up adds up to? These people can't change. They've -lost their adaptability.</p> - -<p>"The system has to be rigid, because the first time anyone expresses -an individual idea, the whole totalitarian structure will collapse. -They're inbred and interlocked, and Samsonov has complete control of -their thinking and their behavior—for the time being, at least. But -as soon as the Tolstoians expand to the Wrightley Islands, or anywhere -else, they'll be facing conditions they've never before encountered. -They'll have to learn to think for themselves again—"</p> - -<p>"—And as soon as they start to think new thoughts, Samsonov's power -will evaporate. He'll lose his grip, just like he did on me!" finished -Heidekopfer, reaching for Ann's hand.</p> - -<p>"You see," concluded Lanzerotti, "Dubrassov was the really dangerous -one. He didn't have new ideas, and whether they were castaways or not, -more people would have been drawn in on him."</p> - -<p>The little group was quiet, contemplative, then they smiled knowingly -at one another.</p> - -<p>"Let's get home," said Ann, "and make our—my last picture."</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POTEMKIN VILLAGE ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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