Oomphel in the Sky Read online

they'd be made to--at about halfwhat planters like Sanders are paying them now. But don't you realizethat profit is sordid and dishonest and selfish? Not at all like drawinga salary-cum-expense-account from the Government."

  "You're right, it isn't," Gonzales agreed. "People like Paul Sandershave ability. If they don't, they don't stay in business. You haveability and people who don't never forgive you for it. Your veryexistence is a constant reproach to them."

  "That's right. And they can't admit your ability without admitting theirown inferiority, so it isn't ability at all. It's just dirty underhandedtrickery and selfish ruthlessness." He thought for a moment. "How didGovernment House find out about these Kwanns here?"

  "The Welfare Commission had people out while I was still setting upheadquarters," Gonzales said. "That was about oh-seven-hundred."

  "This isn't for publication?" Travis asked. "Well, they know, but theycan't prove, that our given reason for moving in here in force is false.Of course, we can't change our story now; that's why thesituation-progress map that was prepared for publication is incorrect asto the earlier phases. They do not know that it was you who gave us ourfirst warning; they ascribe that to Sanders. And they are claiming thatthere never was any swarming; according to them, Sanders' natives arestriking for better pay and conditions, and Sanders got General Maith touse troops to break the strike. I wish we could give you credit forputting us onto this, but it's too late now."

  He nodded. The story was that a battalion of infantry had been sent into rescue a small detail under attack by natives, and that more troopshad been sent in to re-enforce them, until the whole of Gonzales'brigade had been committed.

  "That wasted an hour, at the start," Gonzales said. "We lost two nativevillages burned, and about two dozen casualties, because we couldn't getour full strength in soon enough."

  "You'd have lost more than that if Maith had told the governor generalthe truth and requested orders to act. There'd be a hundred villages anda dozen plantations and trading posts burning, now, and Lord knows howmany dead, and the governor general would still be arguing about whetherhe was justified in ordering troop-action." He mentioned several otheroccasions when something like that had happened. "You can't tell thatkind of people the truth. They won't believe it. It doesn't agree withtheir preconceptions."

  Foxx Travis nodded. "I take it we are still talking for nonpublication?"When Miles nodded, he continued: "This whole situation is baffling,Miles. It seems that the government here knew all about the weatherconditions they could expect at periastron, and had made plans for them.Some of them excellent plans, too, but all based on the presumption thatthe natives would co-operate or at least not obstruct. You see what thesituation actually is. It should be obvious to everybody that thebehavior of these natives is nullifying everything the civil governmentis trying to do to ensure the survival of the Terran colonists, theproduction of Terran-type food without which we would all starve, thebiocrystal plantations without which the Colony would perish, and eventhe natives themselves. Yet the Civil Government will not act to stopthese native frenzies and swarmings which endanger everything andeverybody here, and when the Army attempts to act, we must use everysort of shabby subterfuge and deceit or the Civil Government willprevent us. What ails these people?"

  "You have the whole history of the Colony against you, Foxx," he said."You know, there never was any Chartered Kwannon Company set up toexploit the resources of the planet. At first, nobody realized that therewere any resources worth exploiting. This planet was just a scientificcuriosity; it was and is still the only planet of a binary system with anative population of sapient beings. The first people who came here werescientists, mostly sociographers and para-anthropologists. And most ofthem came from the University of Adelaide."

  Travis nodded. Adelaide had a Federation-wide reputation for left-wingneo-Marxist "liberalism."

  "Well, that established the political and social orientation of theColonial Government, right at the start, when study of the natives wasthe only business of the Colony. You know how these ideological cliquesform in a government--or any other organization. Subordinates are alwayschosen for their agreement with the views of their superiors, and theextremists always get to the top and shove the moderates under or out.Well, the Native Affairs Administration became the tail that wagged theGovernment dog, and the Native Welfare Commission is the big muscle inthe tail."

  His parents hadn't been of the left-wing Adelaide clique. His motherhad been a biochemist; his father a roving news correspondent who haddrifted into trading with the natives and made a fortune in keffa-gumbefore the chemists on Terra had found out how to synthesize hopkinsine.

  "When the biocrystals were discovered and the plantations started, theGovernment attitude was set. Biocrystal culture is just sordid moneygrubbing. The real business of the Colony is to promote the bettermentof the natives, as defined in University of Adelaide terms. That's tosay, convert them into ersatz Terrans. You know why General Maithordered these shoonoon rounded up?"

  Travis made a face. "Governor general Kovac insisted on it; GeneralMaith thought that a few minor concessions would help him on his mainobjective, which was keeping a swarming from starting out here."

  "Yes. The Commissioner of Native Welfare wanted that done, mainly at theurging of the Director of Economic, Educational and TechnicalAssistance. The EETA crowd don't like shoonoon. They have been trying,ever since their agency was set up, to undermine and destroy theirinfluence with the natives. This looked like a good chance to get rid ofsome of them."

  Travis nodded. "Yes. And as soon as the disturbances in Bluelakestarted, the Constabulary started rounding them up there, too, and atthe evacuee cantonments. They got about fifty of them, mostly from thecantonments east of the city--the natives brought in from the floodedtidewater area. They just dumped the lot of them onto us. We have thempenned up in a lorry-hangar on the military reservation now." He turnedto Gonzales. "How many do you think you'll gather up out here, general?"he asked.

  "I'd say about a hundred and fifty, when we have them all."

  Travis groaned. "We can't keep all of them in that hangar, and we don'thave anywhere else--"

  Sometimes a new idea sneaked up on Miles, rubbing against him andpurring like a cat. Sometimes one hit him like a sledgehammer. This onejust seemed to grow inside him.

  "Foxx, you know I have the top three floors of the Suzikami Building;about five hundred hours ago, I leased the fourth and fifth floors,directly below. I haven't done anything with them, yet; they're just asthey were when Trans-Space Imports moved out. There are ample water,light, power, air-conditioning and toilet facilities, and they can besealed off completely from the rest of the building. If General Maith'sagreeable, I'll take his shoonoon off his hands."

  "What in blazes will you do with them?"

  "Try a little experiment in psychological warfare. At minimum, we mayget a little better insight into why these natives think the Last HotTime is coming. At best, we may be able to stop the whole thing and getthem quieted down again."

  "Even the minimum's worth trying for," Travis said. "What do you have inmind, Miles? I mean, what procedure?"

  "Well, I'm not quite sure, yet." That was a lie; he was very sure. Hedidn't think it was quite time to be specific, though. "I'll have tosize up my material a little, before I decide on what to do with it.Whatever happens, it won't hurt the shoonoon, and it won't make any moretrouble than arresting them has made already. I'm sure we can learnsomething from them, at least."

  Travis nodded. "General Maith is very much impressed with your grasp ofnative psychology," he said. "What happened out here this morning wasexactly as you predicted. Whatever my recommendation's worth, you haveit. Can you trust your native driver to take your car back to Bluelakealone?"

  "Yes, of course."

  "Then suppose you ride in with me in my car. We'll talk about it on theway in, and go see General Maith at once."

  Bluelake was peaceful as they flew in over it, but it was an uneas
ypeace. They began running into military contragravity twenty milesbeyond the open farmlands--they were the chlorophyll green of Terranvegetation--and the natives at work in the fields were being watched bymore military and police vehicles. The carniculture plants, whereTerran-type animal tissue was grown in nutrient-vats, were even moreheavily guarded, and the native city was being patroled from above andthe streets were empty, even of the hordes of native children whousually played in them.

  The Terran city had no streets. Its dwellers moved about