when the Great Elder returns to us. All must watch and wait for that
day. In this time, we only remember and tell ourselves the truths over
and over. There are many truths and some I can not speak. Here are the
others:
"The masters are our elders.
"The machines are under obedience to us while we obey the masters.
"The Great Elder wishes our obedience to the masters.
"If we disobey the masters the machines and the trees will not obey us,
and there will be no more work and no small ones. For this is the order
of the world: some obeying and some to be obeyed. It is visible and
plain. When the chain is broken all the chain breaks."
Puna paused, and then repeated the last sentence.
"When the chain is broken all the chain breaks."
"It is true," Cadnan said excitedly. "It is true. Yet there is more
truth--"
"There is," Puna said soberly. "We meet again in five days' time. I can
count five days, and so the others will know, and you will know. At
this next meeting you will be told more truths." His smile was thin and
distant. "Now eat."
Cadnan reached numbly for a leaf and, without thinking, began to
nibble. The world had been set in order: he had no more questions now.
Instead, he felt empty spaces, waiting to be filled with the great
knowledge of Puna and of Gornom and all the others, at the next meeting.
And at other meetings, after that....
He put that thought away: it was too much and too large. The one
certain thing was that in five days' time (whenever that was) he would
know more. In five days they would all meet again.
He hoped five days was not too long.
As matters turned out, of course, he need not have worried. The meeting
he was waiting for never happened.
And, after that, there were no more meetings at all.
* * * * *
PUBLIC OPINION THREE
Being excerpts from memo directives sent between executives of
Associated Metallic Products, Ltd., a corporation having its main
offices within Dome Two, Luna City, Luna, and associated offices on
all three inhabited planets, the memo directives being dated
between May fourteenth and May twenty-first, in the Year of the
Confederation two hundred and ten.
TO: John Harrison
FROM: Fredk. Ramsbotham
RE: Metals supplies & shipment
It having come to my attention that the process of metals shipment
is in danger because of a threat to the materials and procurement
divisions of AMP, Ltd., I wish to advise you, as current Chairman of
the Board, of the nature of the emergency, and request your aid in
drawing up plans to deal with it.
According to reports from our outside operatives, and such statistical
checking as we have been able to use in a matter of this nature,
there exists a strong possibility that present procurement procedures
regarding our raw materials may at any moment be abrogated by act of
the Confederation government. The original motive for this action would
seem to be a rising tide of public unrest, sparked apparently by
chance disclosure of our procurement procedures. That the public unrest
may very soon reach the point at which Confederation notice, and hence
Confederation action, may be taken is the best judgment both of our
outside operatives and of our statistical department.
In order to deal with this unprecedented emergency, it would be
advisable to have your thoughts on the matter. With these in hand....
* * * * *
TO: Fred Ramsbotham
FROM: John Harrison
RE: Your memo May 14
My God, Fred, I haven't seen such a collection of verbiage since Latin
class. Why not say what you mean? People are calling the setup on
Fruyling's World slavery, and slavery is a nasty word.
Let's get together for a talk--and what's with the high-sounding guff?
You sound sore about something: what?
* * * * *
TO: James Oliver Gogarty
FROM: Leonard Offutt
RE: Statistical findings
... The situation is serious, J. O., and there's no getting around
it. If the Government has to take action there's only one way (given
current majorities) they're going to be able to move, and that's to
declare Fruyling's World a protectorate, or some such (get your lawyers
to straighten out the terminology: in plain and simple English, a ward
of the state), and "administer" the place for the best interests of the
natives.
Get that: the natives.
Never mind us, never mind AMP, never mind the metals we need.
No, the Government will step in and take all that away from us in the
interests of a bunch of silly green-looking monsters who can barely
talk and can't, as near as I can see, think at all.
Statistics doesn't give us much of a chance of heading them off. As a
matter of fact, any recommended course of action has better than a 50%
chance of making matters even worse. And if you don't think they _can_
be worse, take a look at the attached sheet, which....
* * * * *
TO: John Harrison
FROM: Fredk. Ramsbotham
RE: Your memo May 15
Have you never heard of the Confederation impounding records? Or these
memos, for instance?
* * * * *
TO: Fred Ramsbotham
FROM: John Harrison
RE: Your memo May 15
Have you never heard of AMP burning them, you silly damn fool?
Now let's get together for a talk.
* * * * *
TO: James Oliver Gogarty
FROM: Gregory Whiting and staff
RE: Your memo May 17
Pressure put on Confederation executives and members of the Senate
might convince the Confederation that, without a fight, Fruyling's
World would not surrender to Confederation control.
It might not be advisable to begin such a fight. Even with modern
methods of transport and training, the weapons gap between the
Confederation and Fruyling's World is a severe handicap. In other
words, J. O., if it came to a showdown the people here don't think we
stand a fair chance of coming out on top.
You'd better rethink your position, then....
* * * * *
TO: James Oliver Gogarty
FROM: John Harrison
RE: Fruyling's World
Interoffice guff says you're planning definite moves on your own,
J. O., and against some opposition.
I'm still Chairman of the Board around here, and I intend to use
power if I have to. The best advice I can get tells me your plans are
unadvisable.
Get it through your head that this has nothing to do with the Board
elections. This is a serious matter. I can stop you, J. O., and don't
think I won't if it comes to that. But I don't want to make threats.
There must be something we can do--but we're going to have to devote
more thought to the whole matter first.
* * * * *
TO: James Oliver Gogarty
FROM: Leonard Offutt
RE: Statistical findings
Chances of such pressure succeeding are, according to derived figures,
37%. Chances of the pressure leading to actual attack on Fruyling's
World (see attached sheet) are 58%.
We cannot advise....
* * * * *
TO: Fredk. Ramsbotham
FROM: James Oliver Gogarty
RE: Attached statistical findings
... Of course it's a risk, Frederick, but we're in the risk-taking
business, and we always were, as your father used to say, and mine too.
Between us, John is a cautious old man, and the rest of the Board is
beginning to appreciate that. By next year the entire situation may
have changed.
I'm asking for your support, then, as a matter of practical politics.
In a risky matter like this one, support can make all the difference
between....
* * * * *
TO: James Oliver Gogarty
FROM: John Harrison
RE: My memo May 19
J. O., I mean it.
Now lay off.
* * * * *
TO: Williston Reed
FROM: John Harrison
RE: Current memo series
As you know, I'm keeping you up to date whenever I have a minute
between appointments: a publicity chief ought to know everything,
inside as well as public-issue material, if only so he can be conscious
of what to hide. I've tried to work with you as well as I can, and if
there are delays in reporting, you'll understand that pressure of other
duties....
... The story behind all of this is simple enough. The takeover Gogarty
and Ramsbotham have been trying to pull is interfering with practical
business. Frankly, AMP'S competitors are happy enough to jump in and
stir the pot: I think they've been buying up Senators here and there
(for which there is, God knows, enough precedent; the entire Senate
hasn't been bought since the Dedrick mutiny forty years back but you
don't _need_ the entire Senate if you have a few key men, and I've
always thought Dedrick's lawyers were wasteful), and beyond what the
competition's been active in, there are always the fanatics. Freedom
for all--you know the sort of thing.
Now the big danger is that if R. and G. succeed in keeping things
messed up the rest of the metals boys will step in, push the government
into the right moves, and kill Fruyling's World deader than Dedrick
himself. Which (according to the statistical breakdown) won't put us
into the bankruptcy courts, but will slide us from a first-or-second
spot to a ninth-or-tenth one. The big question is whether you'd rather
be a small frog in a big puddle or the reverse. Me, I'd rather be a big
frog in a big puddle than any other combination I can think of, and in
spite of everything I think I'm going to go on being just that.
Fruyling's World has been around for a long time, but the current AMP
fight gives the competition the opportunity they need, and they're
pushing it. If we can weather the storm....
Well, I'm being gloomy. Of course we can weather the storm. I'll swing
Gogarty back, and that will leave Ramsbotham nowhere to go....
* * * * *
TO: John Harrison
FROM: Fredk. Ramsbotham
RE: Fruyling's World
... Support of the suggestion put forward by Mr. Gogarty at the last
Board meeting was not, believe me, given without grave consideration.
Now that the matter has been decided, I hope we can all pull together
like team-mates, and "let the dead past bury its dead". I'm sure
that....
* * * * *
TO: Fred Ramsbotham
FROM: John Harrison
RE: Your memo May 21
I'm worrying a little more about burying some of the currently
living--our own men on Fruyling's World.
I've got to ask you to reconsider....
* * * * *
TO: All news services, for immediate release
FROM: Williston Reed
As almost his first act on taking his position as Chairman of the Board
of Associated Metallic Products, Ltd., Frederick Ramsbotham today
issued a statement of policy regarding "interference by Confederation
governmental officials" in what he termed the "private business of AMP."
Mr. Ramsbotham, whose recent election came as a surprise to many
shareholders, has stated his intention of "remaining firm in
continuance of present policies" regardless of what he described as
"threats" from Confederation officials.
He states that his duty to shareholders of AMP must include protection
of the private and profit-making enterprise being carried on at
Fruyling's World, and that such private concerns are not "the business
of public government."
As former Chairman of the Board, John Harrison was asked to comment
on the position taken by Mr. Ramsbotham. Mr. Harrison stated that he
disagreed with the particular stand taken by Mr. Ramsbotham in this
matter, but sympathized with his strong feelings of duty toward the
shareholders of the concern.
Confederation response was reported to be "immediate and strong" by
sources high in the government, but as yet no final word has been
received regarding what action, if any, is contemplated....
* * * * *
TO: Fredk. Ramsbotham
FROM: John Harrison
SUBJECT: The daily paper
Now you've torn it.
Unless you think we can make money selling weapons to be used against
our own people on Fruyling's World.
I've sold out my shares as of this morning, Fred. I'm through. I think
you are, too--whether you know it or not just yet.
12
"That old-time religion."
Dodd heard the words echoing in his mind that night, and the next
night, and the next. All that she had said:
"We set up a nice pie-in-the-sky sort of thing, all according to the
best theory, just the thing to keep the Alberts happy and satisfied and
working hard for us. It started right after the first setup here, and
by now I guess the Alberts think they invented it all by themselves, or
their Great Elder came down from a tree and told them."
"It's horrible," he had said.
"Of course it is." There was a silence. "But you said it yourself: what
can we do? We're here and we're stuck here."
"But--"
Norma didn't want to argue, but the argument went on in Dodd's mind,
and it still continued, circling in his mind like a buzzard. There
was nothing he could do about it, nothing Norma could do about it. He
avoided even the thought of seeing her for a few days, and then he
found himself making an excuse to go over to Building One. He met her
there, after lounging about for hours.
And what she had disclosed to him, what they spoke of, made no
difference that he could see in what he felt.
He was happy. Slowly he realized that he had hardly ever been happy
before.
He even forgot, for a time, about the rumors, the threat of
Confederation troops that had hung over her words like a gray cloud:
all he could think of was Norma, and the terrible thing in which they
were both bound up.
He told himself grimly that it would never have bothered Albin, for
instance. Albin would have had his fun with Norma, and that would have
been that.
But it bothered Johnny Dodd.
He was still worrying over it, and in spite of himself finding
happiness, when the escape came, and the end.
13
"There's nothing to be done about it." Dr. Haenlingen delivered the
words and sat down rigidly behind her desk. Norma nodded, very slowly.
"I know that," she said. "I started out--I started to do just what you
wanted. To talk to him, draw him out, find out just what he did feel
and what he planned."
"And then something happened," Dr. Haenlingen said tightly. "I know."
Norma paced to the window and looked out, but the day was gray: she saw
only her own reflection. "Something happened," she murmured. "I--guess
I had too much to drink. I wanted to talk."
"So I understand," Dr. Haenlingen said. "And you talked. And--whatever
his situation--you managed to increase his tension rather than
understand or lessen it."
Norma shook her head at the reflection. "I'm sorry."
"I have often found," Dr. Haenlingen said, "that sorrow following an
action is worse than useless. It usually implies a request to commit
the same action again."
"But I wouldn't--" Norma said, turning, and then stopped before the
calm gaze of the old woman.
"No?" Dr. Haenlingen said.
"I'll try to--"
Dr. Haenlingen lifted a hand and brushed the words aside. "It doesn't
matter," she said. "I am beginning to see that it doesn't matter."
"But--"
"All we can do now is wait," Dr. Haenlingen said. "We are--outplayed."
There was a little silence. Norma waited through it without moving.
"Would you like to have a lesson in psychology?" Dr. Haenlingen said
in the graying room. "Would you like to learn a little, just a little,
about your fellow man?"
Norma felt suddenly frightened. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong," Dr. Haenlingen said. "Everything is moving along
exactly as might have been predicted. If we had known what the
Confederation planned, and exactly the timetable of their actions ...
but we did not, and could not. Norma, listen to me."
The story she told was very simple. It took a fairly long time to tell.
* * * * *
Slavery takes a toll of the slaves (as the Confederation was beginning
to find out, as the idealists, the do-gooders, were beginning, however
slowly to realize). But it takes a toll of the masters, too.
The masters can't quite rid themselves of the idea that beings which
react so much like people may really (in spite of everything, in spite
of appearance, in spite of laws and regulations and social practices)
be people, after all, in everything but name and training.
And it just wouldn't be right to treat _people_ that way....
Slaves feel pain. In simple reciprocity, masters feel guilt.
And because (according to the society, and the laws, and the
appearances, and the regulations) there was no need for guilt, the
masters of Fruyling's World had, like masters anywhere and any time,
buried the guilt, hidden it even from themselves, forbidden its
existence and forgotten to mention it to their thoughts.
But the guilt remained, and the guilt demanded.
Punishment was needed.
"They're going to fight," Dr. Haenlingen said. "When the Confederation
attacks, they're going to fight back. It's senseless: even if we
won, the Confederation fleet could blockade us, prevent us getting a
shipment out, bottle us up and starve us for good. But they don't need
sense, they need motive, which is quite a different thing. They're
going to fight--both because they need the punishment of a really good
licking, and because fighting is one more way for them to deny their
guilt."
"It seems complex," Norma said.
"Everything is complex," Dr. Haenlingen said, "as soon as human beings
engage in it. The action is simple enough: warfare."
"We've got to stop them--"
Dr. Haenlingen went on as if she hadn't heard. "The action serves two
different, indeed two contradictory purposes. If you think that's
something rare in the actions of mankind, you must be more naive than
you have any right to be."
"We've got to stop them," Norma said again. "Got to. They'll die--we'll
all die."
"There is nothing to do," Dr. Haenlingen said. "We are outplayed--by
the Confederation, by our own selves. We are outplayed: there are no
moves left. There is nothing I can offer, nothing anyone can offer,
quite as attractive as the double gift of punishment and denial."
Shockingly, for the first time, the old woman sounded tired. Her voice
was thin in the gray room. "Nothing we can do, Norma. You're dismissed:
go back to work."
"But you can't just give up--you can show them there aren't any real
reasons, show them they're not being rational--"
"Oh, but they'll be rational," Dr. Haenlingen said in the same still
voice. "Wait for the rumors to start, Norma. Wait for them to begin
telling each other that the Confederation is going to kill them all
anyhow, take them back and hang them as war criminals--"
"That's ridiculous!"
"Perhaps."
"Then--"
"Rumors during a war are almost always ridiculous. That fact makes
no difference at all. They'll be believed--because they have to be
believed."
Norma thought. "We can start counter-rumors."
"Which would not be believed. They offer nothing, nothing that these
people want. Oh, yes, people can be changed--" Dr. Haenlingen paused.
"Given sufficient time and sufficient equipment, it is possible to make
anyone into anything, anything at all. But to change these people, to
make them act as we want--the time required is more than ten years,
Norma. And we haven't got ten years."
"We've got to try," Norma said earnestly.
"What we have got," Dr. Haenlingen said, "is more like ten days.
And there is nothing to do in ten days. The people have spoken.
Vox populi...." The eyes closed. There was a silence Norma waited,
astonished, horrified. "Perhaps it is necessary," Dr. Haenlingen's
voice said. "Perhaps ... we must wait. _Ich kann nicht anders...._"
"What?" Norma asked.
"Martin Luther," Dr. Haenlingen's voice said, remote and thin. "It
means: 'I can do nothing else.' He wrote it as his justification for
a course of action that was going to get him excommunicated, perhaps
killed."
"But--"
Dr. Haenlingen said nothing, did nothing. The body sat behind its desk
in the gray room. Norma stared, then turned and fled.
14
The mixture of feelings inside Cadnan was entirely new to him, and
he couldn't control it very well. He found himself shaking without
meaning to, and was unable to stop himself. There was relief, first of
all, that it was all over, that he no longer had to worry about what
Marvor might have planned, or whether Marvor were going to involve
him. There was fright, seeing anyone carry through such a foolhardy,
almost impious idea in the teeth of the masters. And there was simple
disappointment, the disappointment of a novice theologue who has seen
his pet heretic slip the net and go free.
For Cadnan had tried, earnestly, night after night, to convert Marvor
to the new truths the elders had shown him. They were luminously
obvious to Cadnan, and they set the world in beautiful order; but,
somehow, he couldn't get through to Marvor at all, couldn't express
the ideas he had well enough or convincingly enough to let Marvor see
how beautiful and true all of them really were. For a time, in fact,
he told himself with bitterness that Marvor's escape had really been
all his own fault. If he'd only had more talks with Marvor, he thought
cloudily, or if he'd only been able to speak more convincingly....
But regret is part of a subjunctive vocabulary. At least one writer
has noted that the subjunctive is the mark of civilization. This may
be true: it seems true: in Cadnan's case, at any rate, it certainly
was true. Uncivilized, he spent little time in subjunctive moods.
All that he had done, all that Marvor had done, was open to him, and
he remembered it often--but, once the bad first minutes were past, he
remembered everything with less and less regret. The mixture, as it
stood, was heady enough for Cadnan's untrained emotions.
He had tried to talk to Marvor about the truths, of course. Marvor,
though, had been obstinately indifferent. Nothing made any impression
on his hardened, stubborn mind. And now he was gone.
Dara had the news first. She came into their common room at the end of
the day, very excited, her hands still moving as if she were turning
handles in the refinery even after the close of work. Cadnan, still
feeling an attraction for her, and perceiving now that something had
disturbed her, stayed where he was squatting. Attraction for Dara, and
help given to her, might lead to mating, and mating was against the
rule. But Dara came to him.
"Do you know what happens with Marvor?" she said. Her voice, always
quiet, was still as sweet to Cadnan as it had ever been. "He is gone,
and the masters do not know where."
The mixture of emotions began: surprise and relief first, then regret
and disappointment, then fear, all boiling and bubbling inside him like
a witch's stew. He spoke without thinking: "He is gone to break the
chain of obedience. He is gone to find others who think as he thinks."
"He is escaped," Dara said. "It is the word the masters use, when they
speak of this."
"It happens before now," Cadnan told her. "There are others, whom he
joins."
Dara shut her eye. "It is true. But I know what happens when there is
an escape. In the place where my work is, there is one from Great Bend
Tree. She tells me of what happens."
Dara fell silent and Cadnan watched her nervously. But he had no chance
to speak: she began again, convulsively.
"When this other escapes it is from a room of Great Bend Tree."
Cadnan nodded: he and Dara were of Bent Line Tree, and hence in a
different room. The segregation, simple for the masters, was handy and
unimportant, and so it was used. Cadnan thought it natural: every tree
had its own room.
"Do they find the one who escapes?" he asked.
"They find him. The masters come in and they punish the others from the
room."
Precedent was clearly recognizable, even though it made no sense.
Those who had not escaped surely had no reason to be punished, Cadnan
thought. But what the masters had done to Great Bend Tree they would do
to Bent Line Tree.
Everyone would be punished.
With a shock he realized that "everyone" included Dara.
He heard himself speak. "You must go."
Dara looked at him innocently. "Go?" she said.
"You must go as Marvor has gone. The masters do not take you for
punishment if you go."
"There is nothing for me to do," she said, and her eye closed. "No. I
wait for you, but only to tell you this: there is nothing I can do."
"Marvor is gone," Cadnan said slowly. "You, too, can go. Maybe the
masters do not find you. If you stay you are punished. If you go and
they do not find you there is no punishment for you." It amazed him
that she could not see so clear a point.
"Then all can go," she said. "All can escape punishment."
Cadnan grunted, thinking that over. "Where one goes," he said at last,
"one can go. Maybe many can not go."
Her answer was swift. "And you?"
"I stay here," he said, trying to sound as decisive as possible.
Dara turned away. "I do not listen to your words," she said flatly. "I
do not hear you or see you."
Cadnan hissed in anguish. She had to understand.... "What do I say that
is wrong? You must--"
"You speak of my going alone," she said. "But that is me, and no more.
What of the others?"