"Why not?"
"There's no doubt about the natives' intelligence. Reminds me of that
old jingle, 'The people are bright, and very polite.' Applied to the
Japanese at one time, I believe, when the western powers discovered
how quickly they learned methods centuries in advance of their own
culture, once shown.
"But whenever we've brought advanced technology to so-called primitive
or backward peoples on Earth we've destroyed their own ways of living
in the process. We've killed the virtues they had and replaced them
with our own highly advanced vices. And sometimes they've improved upon
our vices and surpassed us in all kinds of evil."
"You think we should avoid the Vaec?"
"I think we should use such decency as we have, and not foist our
values upon them. And technology is part of our values and our
corruption accompanies it."
He looked in the direction of Howard James, and Burleigh's entire
aspect seemed to exude anger.
"You'd like to see this expedition stopped, wouldn't you?" said Amelia.
He didn't answer her.
Now Ekem-ve and Phrecle walked up to the excavator, and Phrecle climbed
up the notches in the body that led to the control turret. A moment
later he was inside and seated at the board.
Burleigh said, with ungrudging admiration, "You'd think that eight
fingers would be in the way. Actually, the natives can spread their
hands far wider than any of us, and they can handle all the important
buttons simultaneously. Their co-ordination is superb. What pianists
they would make!"
Amelia gasped as the four tubes lifted simultaneously, like snakes, and
moved closer to Burleigh. The excavator moved on its treads over to the
boundary pole, then stopped. The foot-wide mouths of the tubes came
down to the sand, which seemed to be sucked up, carried through the
body of the machine, then expelled in a high golden stream.
"It's hard to remember, when you see that, that a vacuum has no sucking
or lifting power," Burleigh said.
"That's one thing I do remember from science," Amelia replied.
"Atmospheric pressure, or artificially produced air-pressure, makes
the effect. It's like water rushing through a hole in a dam, carrying
everything along with it."
"But it still _looks_ as if those snakes are sucking up the sand," said
Burleigh, smiling.
"Couldn't larger tubes be used?"
"Of course. At least four times as large, but that would be too
dangerous. As it is, don't let yourself get caught within several yards
of those openings when the power is on. You could lose an arm or leg or
head before you knew what had happened."
Ekem-ve had come up to them as Burleigh was speaking. "Excellent Calvin
speaks wisdom," he said. "Must keep respectful distance from excellent
tube which cannot tell Vaec or excellent Earth person from sand."
* * * * *
The reel of film came to an end, and Auckland could see that
considerable editing would be necessary before it was shown to the
general public. The second reel was a more expert job of film-making,
he soon found; the work of days compressed into minutes.
* * * * *
Four sizeable pits filled the screen, the excavators at their bottom,
the tubes slithering like serpents eating up the golden sand, and the
ejection spray higher and farther-carrying. The Vaec were shoring up
the sides.
Ekem-ve, his single hair straight as a ramrod, came up to Dr. Howard
James. "Erring Vaec misinform excellent Earth people. Storm season
over, but latecomer approach." He pointed.
Over toward the east, a black dot had appeared against the blue of the
sky, and it grew larger as they watched. James looked startled. "How
long before it reaches us?"
"Late-coming storm hurry to make up lost time. Must leave desert right
away."
James spoke into his wrist-communicator. "Phrecle, Hcent, Syeltan,
drive the excavators out of the pits and head for the bluff." He
pressed a button. "Attention, everyone. Pick up as much equipment as
you can carry easily, and get to the crawlers. Close the tents, but be
sure the finder is set. The pegs are long and deep enough so the tents
won't blow away, but we may have to excavate it." He sighed. "Well, at
least the shoring should hold; we'll just have to dig around it."
The black dot had now spread until it nearly filled the sky, and a gale
was rising. No one was running now; all were walking, leaning against
the wind, and the sand was swirling around them. There was still some
light as they reached the crawlers. Ekem-ve said, "Do not worry about
Vaec, excellent Howard. Vaec not get lost in storm. Pleasant to ride in
excellent vehicles but not necessary. Nsenol take pictures as long as
possible. Can excellent Earthmen find way?"
James nodded. "We tune our finders to headquarters, and they will show
us the way." The Vaec wiggled his fingers and helped Amelia climb in,
then turned away.
The excavators were a bit ahead as the crawlers, completely covered
now, started out; then all were but dim shapes vaguely seen in the
swirling sands.
* * * * *
The excavators were uncovering the tents, which proved to be intact.
Now they were on the floor of still larger pits than those made before
the storm. The black edges of a triangular shape were emerging from the
golden sands.
The villa stood out, sharp and clear, as if it had been carved and
painted a glossy black; the sands around it were level with its base.
They were standing before a large triangle outlined in red.
"Whatever it's made of," Edholm said, "will have to be determined by
spectroanalysis. You've found that it's harder than diamond, about a
quarter of an inch thick, and resistant to every sort of heat we've
applied. And you can't scratch it or dent it."
"Those triangles seem to be doorways of some sort," said Burleigh.
"There's one on each of these buildings--no windows." He shrugged. "And
no indication of how they open."
"Open sesame," Glamis called out. "You know, it might be amenable
to some sort of thought-control. Suppose we all just concentrate on
wishing it would open."
"Nothing to lose," said Burleigh. The group fell silent. A spot
appeared in the eight-foot triangle. It widened rapidly until they
could see that the material was sliding into frames.
"Since I'm wearing a protective suit, I'll go in first," said Glamis.
He stepped into the opening, and a moment later, the place was filled
with light.
Now all were inside the room, which was illuminated by a soft glow,
revealing light-toned walls which seemed to change subtly in value as
the camera moved around. It was a triangle-shaped room, empty except
for objects which could be chair frames.
"Well, we've found out a bit," James said. "The lights go on when
anyone comes in; so long as anyone is in, they stay on unless we
'think' them off. As soon as the last person goes out, they go off by
themselves. The air in here is perfectly good. What's the measurements
of the room, Cal?"
"Fifteen feet to a side, and the partition over there is made of
something that looks like children's building blocks. They seem to be a
sort of brick."
"And those chair frames," James went on, "are very similar to the ones
the Vaec use, though the material is different. These are metal, while
the Vaec use a sort of cane and matting material."
"I wonder if they're solid enough to sit in," Amelia said. "My feet
hurt."
"You might draw a cultural diffusionist conclusion from those chair
frames," said Burleigh. "Since the natives have artifacts similar
to these, the natives must have gotten the designs from whatever
civilization created this villa. Still, there's no reason for not
assuming that the natives arrived at their designs independently."
"There is even less reason," said Glamis, "to postulate that the Vaec
are degenerate descendants of the same--"
A cry from Amelia interrupted him. They turned to see her sitting in
one of the frames. But the frame was shifting, its contours sliding to
conform to her shape. And from the frames, a thin material was issuing,
something that resembled web-work.
She struggled out of it; and as soon as she was free, the chair began
to revert to its former shape as the webbing retreated back into
the frame. Glamis laughed. "Now that is what I call service." He sat
down on the frame, and the process repeated itself. "The last word in
comfort," he said.
* * * * *
They stood outside the second building in the villa, the square
attached to the far diamond, and watched the doorway open. "Obviously,"
Burleigh said, "there's machinery around here somewhere and it's still
working after how many Carolinian centuries? It operates the doors and
lights to thought-control, and keeps the air pure and the temperature
comfortable."
Dr. James was writing in his notebook. He closed it, looked at his
stylus, and said, "Let's see if any object passing that doorway will
put the lights on. It might not be thought-control for them, after
all." He tossed the stylus through the dark opening.
Nothing happened. "There's your answer," said Glamis. He stepped
through the doorway, and they heard him exclaim. The lights came on as
they followed him, to see blocks scattered over the floor. "Someone
didn't straighten up," he said.
Over in a corner, was a partly-dismantled wall that had cut it off when
it was complete. Burleigh went over to it, and pushed against one of
the remaining blocks. It moved back easily. He pulled on the block next
to it, and it came out just as easily. "Quite light," he said. "Though
only about half the length of the one I pushed."
"About six by four inches, wouldn't you say?" asked James, making the
entry in his notebook.
"Look at this," called Amelia. She had started to pick up the blocks
on the floor, and was piling them up. It was a perfectly straight
pile. She put another block on the top, a little less than true, and
it seemed to slide into place by itself. They watched until she had a
single column as high as she could make it. She stood back and looked
at it a moment, then pushed against it. Nothing happened.
The others tried, with similar results; that single column wouldn't
topple. Glamis pushed a block partway down and it gave easily, but he
couldn't push it entirely free. Burleigh went around to the other side,
grasped the recalcitrant block, and pulled. It came out in his hand,
and the blocks above it tumbled obligingly.
"Here's something," called out James, and they saw that he had climbed
over the remnants of the wall of blocks. He held what looked like a
good-size box in his hands. It was covered with intricate geometrical
designs, all straight lines. "Do these designs look familiar?"
"They look like the designs on the natives' clothing," said Burleigh.
"See if you can think that carton open."
"It's fairly heavy," said James, leaning over the wall and depositing
the box on the floor. "Oops, I think I've got it--heard a sort of
click."
The top of the box opened. "I'd say it was some sort of books," he
announced happily.
* * * * *
They were in a room whose walls were covered with murals, designs,
and sections devoted to groups of dots and lines, with occasional
diagonals. The murals looked like abstract paintings in every possible
color and tone.
"Poetry, perhaps," said Glamis, indicating the groups. "It's the same
characters that are in the books."
"And more of these walls of blocks, complete or incomplete," mused
James. "More boxes of books in these cellar rooms. I think these murals
may tell us something, in relation to the books, perhaps, if we study
them. I'm going to spend some time in this cellar. I have a feeling...."
* * * * *
Roy Auckland shook his head, and brought himself back to the present.
Those unedited films had given him important background details on the
expedition and its members. But now the crawler had reached the edge of
the diggings and was going down the ramp that had been constructed for
it. He could see Howard James, Amelia, Glamis, and Edholm standing near
one of the triangular doorways, and it looked as if they were arguing.
But Auckland had no eyes for them at the moment. Even though he had
seen the villa in the films, there was something about it that took his
breath away. For size, it couldn't compare with the temple of Karnak,
just the first of many remains he had seen on Earth. For durability, it
seemed less wonderful than the Roman viaducts still in operation--had
it been France or Spain where he'd seen them? For a feeling of
alienness, it couldn't compare with Aku-Aku. What was it then?
It was the aura of newness about the villa, he decided. It looked
as if it had been built tomorrow, then time-transplanted into
yesterday. It looked like a demonstration building--the very latest in
architecture--never occupied, perhaps never intended for occupation.
Auckland looked around at the golden sands, brighter still against
the gleaming black walls of the villa. He found himself thinking of
a sandpile dumped in a backyard at night to surprise a child when he
awoke in the morning; sand which covered a toy the child had left
outside.
Captain Walter Edholm was talking as Auckland neared the group. The
spaceman stood there, half an inch shorter than Kenneth Glamis, a shade
slenderer than Dr. James, and apparently between their ages. He didn't
bark out commands, but their was authority in his manner.
"It's irrelevant whether these attempts were inept," Auckland heard him
saying. "Until I am satisfied that there are no more booby traps in the
villa, excavation and exploration is suspended. I am responsible for
the safety of you all."
He turned to greet the approaching quartet. "Miss Mason, I want you
to take Rouse wave photographs of every building in the villa, and of
every object which has been removed from it."
"More objects?" asked Auckland.
"Just boxes and chair frames and blocks," said James, seemingly
unperturbed. "I hadn't opened some of the boxes."
"Precisely," said Edholm. "Someone else may have done so." He turned to
give Ekem-ve the traditional greeting, with a slight grimace. "I think
you can see that this is no joke."
The Vaec's hair was perfectly still now, belying the benevolent look
on his face. "Mirth departs when harmful desire enters, excellent
Walter. Yet sometimes young Vaec unaware of harm--perhaps Earthman
unaware?"
The question could not be evaded, for that would leave a worse
impression than the truth, Auckland thought. Edholm nodded. "Sometimes
Earthmen harm each other and themselves in search of mirth."
Just what did the Vaec include in that word? More than laughter; that
was certain. Not folly; the adult Carolinians showed no signs of it,
however foolish some of their jests might appear to Earthmen. "Forgive
our foolish ways," Auckland thought.
Edholm continued, "Someone has gone too far in mirthful plans, Ekem-ve,
and we must look for dangerous sticky traps. Will you and your people
help Dr. Auckland look for traps, and anything else he needs assistance
in doing?"
"Vaec happy to help excellent Roy," Ekem-ve replied.
"The point I was trying to make--before you arrived, Roy--was that
things aren't as they seem, and shouldn't be taken at face value,"
Glamis put in. "I say this applies to both alleged attempts at murder.
They shouldn't be taken seriously."
Edholm looked at him sternly. "On the contrary, Dr. Glamis, they cannot
be taken too seriously, Dr. Auckland is in charge of the investigation
and is to report solely to me. I expect every one of you to
co-operate." He glanced around at each of them. "Except one, of course,
and no doubt that person will put up a good show of cooperation."
Here it is, Roy Auckland thought. It's my baby now!
V
Edholm continued: "You will all return to headquarters. I shall remain
here to examine the bomb fragments."
Roy Auckland cleared his throat, "On the contrary, Captain, since I
am in charge of the investigation I'm going to have to veto one thing
you've said and amend another. There will be a full report only when I
am satisfied that the case is solved, and then everyone will hear it.
Until then, I shall tell any of you as much as suits my purposes. And
until then, everyone is under suspicion, including the captain."
He lifted a hand as Edholm bristled. "When I say everyone is under
suspicion, I do not mean that I consider the guilt of everyone equally
probable but rather that I am not starting out with the assumption that
anyone is to be considered above suspicion. That is the amendment. From
time to time, you will all be asked to assist.
"Right now I would like Doctor James to take charge while Captain
Edholm and I examine the room in question. That is the veto. Please get
ready to return to headquarters, but no one will leave until we return."
He followed Edholm inside the doorway and felt the strangeness of
the room, which was as he had seen it in the pictures. There was one
difference, however; over near the wall that faced the adjoining unit,
a section of the floor had slid back, revealing a flight of steps
leading down.
"You can't wish the lights out so long as this is open," Edholm said.
"There's one flight leading down, and another leading up to the next
building. This is the only way to get from one of these units to
another without going outside."
At the end of the steps was an entrance like the entrance outside. They
passed through and Edholm turned and faced it. "Watch," he said. He
lowered his head as if in deep concentration, and the opening closed.
"I have shut the door and turned off the lights in the upstairs room."
Now he saw the walls around him, filled with designs in color, and
groups of dots and bars and lines. It was like nothing he had ever seen
before except perhaps a collection of abstractionist paintings, and he
had to force himself not to stare at them and try to trace the shapes
and make them fall into some sort of pattern. The alienness of it was
both pleasing and disturbing. Auckland shook his head and forced
himself to ignore the murals. Edholm, he saw, paid no attention to them
at all.
The peculiar blocks were scattered about the floor, one of them resting
by the far wall. The wall of blocks, he saw, had not been entirely
knocked down.
Edholm pointed to the single block. "That one was propelled with a lot
of force, though it didn't dent the wall or even damage the surface,"
he said. "Just how badly it would have hurt anyone it hit is hard to
tell. If it had only made some sort of mark, we'd have something to go
on."
"We have quite a bit to go on," replied Auckland, picking the block up,
astonished at its lightness. He took a stylus out of his pocket and
tapped it. "Doesn't sound hollow, though."
It took a while to gather the fragments of the improvised bomb. "Any
ideas about these?" he asked the captain.
Edholm nodded. "Yes. I can tell you that it was rigged from various
toys and gadgets we brought with us for the Vaec. Extremely simple. An
explosive pellet was put in a mousetrap, and the trap was attached to a
little windup timer. When the timer went off, it released the trap and
exploded the pellet. Want to take the remains back to headquarters?"
Auckland shook his head. "No. It's simple enough for anyone, including
me, to have rigged. These little timers all make a ticking sound, don't
they."
"Yes. Well, no, we did have a few silent ones, but the Vaec didn't care
for them so much."
"Very interesting. And everyone, of course, has access to the store
rooms. I take it the Vaec find mousetraps amusing, too." Edholm nodded.
"Tell me, if a pellet were exploded out in the middle of the room, do
you think the concussion would be fatal to us?"
Edholm mused for a moment. "It would shatter our eardrums, that's
certain. Whether one of them would kill us, I'm not sure. Wouldn't want
to take a chance on it. Of course, there may have been more than one
pellet attached to the trap."
"We heard it go off from a considerable distance. I take it that Doc
left all the doors open when he came out of the cellar."
"They make a lot of noise. The Vaec used them for fireworks--Leitfred
gave them some on his second trip here. But they seem to have lost
interest in them. I suppose it's because these things are a bit too
dangerous for practical jokes. Anything else you want to look at here?"
"No, we may as well head back." It was clear that the improvised bomb
might have been dangerous had James been in the room, but the question
of how dangerous remained open. That would require tests, and he made a
note to have Ekem-ve take care of it.
In his quarters, Roy Auckland spoke into the microphone of his recorder
as he riffled through the personal dossiers of the expedition members.
"Question one," he said. "Why is Shirley Mason with this expedition?
Why did she resign from the space service to join it, when she had a
far more promising career ahead of her, since she received the citation
for bravery beyond the call of duty, trying to rescue a sick passenger
in the wreck of the spaceship _Scriabin_?
"Question two: What is Calvin Burleigh's present connection with the
Fowler Committee on Alien Contacts? When he was committee chairman, the
line was that Earthmen should run away fast the moment they saw aliens
not clearly their equal, lest fallen and wicked human beings corrupt
simple and pure natives. He is the only one here who refers to the Vaec
as natives and acts as if he would like to put an end to the expedition.
"Question three: Would Edholm also like to stop the work? He testified
before the Fowler Committee and tried to get this planet declared
off-limits for Earthmen. But he does not regard the Vaec as primitives.
He seems to distrust them, for all his politeness toward them.
"Question four: What is Amelia James' real attitude towards her
husband? She met him at Sanderson's Rest in Alaska shortly after the
Marlene affair, and they have been married over thirty years. He does
not seem to take her infidelities seriously, but relations between him
and Glamis and Burleigh show signs of strain. Is he jealous? Would
Amelia like to be free of--"
The intercom buzzed, and Auckland switched off the microphone and
turned the room speaker on. Dr. Howard James's voice came through,
excitedly.
"Will everyone please come to the recreation room? I have something to
show all of you."
* * * * *
Everyone else was there, except James, when Auckland arrived in the
rec-room. Dr. James entered a moment later, bouncing in with the air of
one who has found the Lost Chord. Auckland felt an irresistible urge to
needle him at the earliest opportunity. Could this, and this alone, be
the meaning of Glamis's behavior toward the chief?
It was possible, but Glamis wasn't wearing his usual sardonic smile as
Howard James held up an object they all recognized as one of the books
found in the villa. James placed it on the table silently, and they all
gathered around him.
Looking at the object gave Auckland that feeling of looking at tomorrow
again. There was a simplicity and beauty and implication of durability
in the covering material that made all Earthmade books, even the
finest, seem shabby and impertinent by comparison. As if the books of
Earth were a mockery and negation of the very idea of bookmaking. There
was the breath of eternity in this object and Auckland thought, _Heaven
and Earth shall pass away, but my words will never pass away_.
James opened the book, and the substance on which the contents were
impressed augmented the impression of the outside. He did not have to
touch the pages; he had handled these volumes and knew that the pages
were light, flexible, and impervious to any ordinary application of
heat or moisture. The spark from a cigarette could fall upon them;
water, acids, alkalines, grease could be spilled on them and wiped
away, leaving no trace. They were almost white, taking on a slight tone
which varied with the light falling upon them.
He looked at the matter on the pages, and it was like a glimpse of
yesterday--yesterday's yesterday.
He thought of illuminated manuscripts, because he knew without any
further evidence that these pages had not been "printed" or otherwise
reproduced by mass mechanical means. This was handmade.
James turned a page and it lay there flat. The books could be opened
and left thus at any page. There was no tendency in the book to close
itself, yet no matter how hard one pressed upon open pages at any
point, the binding remained unharmed. He looked at the dots and lines
and bars, some in different colors, that made up the left column, then
gasped at what he saw in the right column. It was....
"Looks familiar," came Glamis' voice, breaking into his thoughts.
James nodded appreciatively. "I was hoping you would say that, Ken. Go
on don't let me suggest what it looks like."
"Reminds me of Old Martian."
"My thought, too," said Burleigh in an awed voice.
Auckland looked at Shirley and then at Amelia. Both of them ignored the
book on the table. Both of them were watching Kenneth Glamis. Shirley's
face was calm but it made him think of a mask. Amelia's ripe lips were
parted slightly and she was having more trouble in suppressing emotion.
Edholm said dryly, "Gentlemen, it _is_ Old Martian." He nodded at James
stiffly, reluctant approval in his voice. "You have found a Rosetta
stone, sir."
Auckland felt himself breathing more quickly, as the feeling came
to him that he was present at a moment of history. When men first
explored Mars, they found traces of a long-vanished civilization and
a few decipherable inscriptions that were close enough to Sanskrit to
translate more or less intelligibly. The indication was clear that
either the Martians had once been on earth, or that Earthmen had set up
a civilization on Mars. A civilization, not just a colony. Colonies do
not develop the type of art forms that were found on Mars until they
have passed the stage of dependence and are no longer colonies. There
were factions among Earth's archaeologists as to which was the case; at
the moment, the party which believed the Old Martians to have migrated
from Earth was in ascendancy.
Later explorations uncovered fragments of records, partial translations
suggesting that the Old Martians--to distinguish them from the simple,
insectoid creatures now dwelling on the fourth planet--had had
something like a stellar empire. The records referred to contact and
friendly relations with another (humanoid?) culture, which also covered
many worlds.
You had to put a question mark after "humanoid," because there was no
description of either the other beings or the Old Martians themselves.
The phrases describing these other beings broke down to "much like
ourselves in form," which meant that these others were humanoid if the
Old Martians themselves were human or humanoid.
Where the Old Martians had gone, or why, was still a riddle. There was
a fragment of what was believed to be a poem, of which one line read
something like "when we bid farewell to this system." Context suggested
that "this system" was our own solar system, and opinion was that the
Old Martians had migrated en masse to the planets of another sun or
suns.
"The evidence," James was saying in a satisfied tone of voice, "is
entirely circumstantial. But circumstantial evidence can sometimes be
very convincing, I refer you to the classic example of the trout in the
milk, which is still used in elementary law. Now you must admit that
the circumstances indicate a connection between the Vaec and the villa.
We have seen the numerous similarities.
"And I further suggest the similarity of pointlessness. The Vaec do
innumerable things which seem pointless or childish to us, and the wall
of blocks we found seem to be the same sort of pointlessness."
"Meaning, really, that we just do not see the point," said Edholm. "I
think there is a lot before our eyes that we are just not seeing."
"Of course," James agreed. "We haven't the proper perspective. A trout
in the milk is convincing evidence that water was added to the milk.
But it does not positively state why, nor again, how much. To torture
the analogy, in some milieus the trout may have added because people
like the flavor trout gives to the milk. In others, the trout may be
accidental, but the addition of water is considered desirable. In the
frame where such things happened in our own history alone, was it proof
of adulteration with intent to deceive?"
"And what do you think this volume may indicate, in addition to being a
Rosetta stone, Doctor?" asked Auckland.
James smiled. "I expect to find some indication that the Vaec here
are remnants of that other culture referred to in the Old Martian
fragments. Oh, by the way, did Ekem-ve bring the box I asked for?"
"It's in the lab," said Shirley.
"Good. I was going to study it tonight, compare the designs with the
designs in the photos I've taken of those murals in the villa. I think
we may find some definite connection between the Vaec and the builders
of the villa."
"My guess is that you will find a very close resemblance," said Glamis.
His voice wasn't mocking, but he was secretly amused about something,
Auckland thought.
"Well, that can wait," James said. "I'm going to take this book to look
over tonight. Want to see if there is any noticeable similarity at any
point in the characters of the two scripts." He picked up the book and
started out.
Glamis looked after him and said lightly, "For a man who's apparently
escaped two assassination attempts in one day--"
"The assassin overlooked one essential," broke in Burleigh. "If he had
left that book lying on the floor, he could have put his bomb in the
middle of the room, and James would have never heard it."
Amelia James, who had started toward the door, paused and threw a
withering glance at the two men. Then her eyes met Auckland's and her
lips parted. She didn't speak but her eyes said, "Please come with me."