call everybody in the colony, will you? Tell them to come to the gate.
I have something important to show them. I've got to go back out to my
friends now. 'Bye." He started toward the door.
"Friends! What friends?" Jeb called.
"You'll find out," Johnny said, with a laugh.
"Hey, you can't go outside without armor," one of the other guards
shouted. But Johnny had slipped out before he could be stopped. He took
the stairs at a run, and was out of the heavy steel wall doors before
the men could follow him.
As he skipped across the open space back to the jungle, he turned his
head, waved to the men in the tower, and smiled.
"Come back here, you little devil!" Jeb shouted through the loudspeaker
the guards used to guide tanks in.
But Johnny shook his head and went back into the brush.
Johnny waited for about ten minutes. All this time the loudspeaker in
the tower was shouting for Johnny to come back in. Finally the voice
changed. It was Johnny's father's voice.
"Johnny," his father said over the speaker. "Come on in here! _Please!_
I'm here now. Johnny!"
Johnny heard a tank starting up inside. He didn't want any tanks coming
after him.
"Come on, friends," he clicked to the animals. He climbed back up on
the rhinosaur's back. The leopard came running up with her cubs. The
arrow-bird and the monkey, taking no chances, followed behind them,
leaped to its usual perch--the top of Johnny's head.
"Let's go!" Johnny clicked to the rhinosaur. "Walk very slowly out
toward the big black place."
Johnny clicked to one of the cubs to jump up on the rhinosaur's back
beside him. Johnny crawled to the broad head of the rhinosaur between
two of its horns. The leopard cub sat on its haunches beside him. The
mother leopard and the other cub ran alongside them. The rhinosaur's
hooves made muffled thunder as he walked.
A big grin on his face, and waving his hand, Johnny emerged from the
jungle into full sight of his father, Jeb, and many others inside the
guard tower.
"Stop when we get a little way from the door," Johnny said to the
rhinosaur. The big beast grunted its understanding.
Johnny and his friends came to a halt close enough to the tower so that
Johnny's voice could be heard.
"Open the gate, please," Johnny shouted. "We want to come inside." He
saw his father's startled face above him. "Hello, Dad. How's Mom? Did
she worry too much?"
"Hello, son." His father's voice was shocked. "Your mother is all
right." He paused. "Where did you.... How did you...?"
"You mean the animals?" Johnny asked, rather enjoying the effect he
was making. "Oh, they're friends of mine. You can let us in. They won't
hurt anybody. I'm bringing a present to pay for Baba and make up for
all the harm we did. Look." He took a packet of the claws and opened
it. He let a handful of the claws run out of one hand into the other
in a shining blue waterfall. Through the microphone he could hear his
father and the other men gasp.
"Come in here quick," Frederick Watson's voice came back over the
loudspeaker.
"Open the gates, please," Johnny repeated.
"But the rhinosaur! And the leopard!"
"They're friends of mine. They brought me here. They won't hurt
anybody. I promise."
The big steel gate slowly opened. Riding on the back of one of the
greatly feared rhinosaurs, Johnny entered the colony.
It seemed that everyone in the colony had heard of Johnny's strange
return. Pioneers--men, women and children, hunters and guards--were
hurrying toward the big gate. At the sight of the rhinosaur, a woman
screamed and the crowd ran, scattering in all directions.
Captain Thompson, two other colonists and a hunter held their ground,
their ato-tube pistols out.
"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" Johnny shouted. Beneath him the rhinosaur
trembled. "He won't hurt you. He's our friend." He stroked the
arrow-bird on his shoulder. "Look! Even an arrow-bird!"
Slowly the ato-tube pistols that had been leveled at them were lowered.
Hesitantly, one or two of the people began to move back toward the
little group.
A woman came running toward Johnny. It was his mother. Tears were
running down her face. Even she was finally stopped by the bewildering
sight of her son surrounded by jungle animals.
"Let me down," Johnny clicked to the rhinosaur. The big animal lowered
his head. A cry went up from the people as the leopardess bounded after
him. Johnny threw his arms about his mother.
"Oh, Johnny, Johnny!" his mother said over and over, holding him tight
against her armor. She stiffened as the mother leopard rubbed against
them and the arrow-bird lit, for a moment, on her shoulder.
"Mother, I want you to meet my friends," Johnny said. "This is Mona,
the leopardess, and her two cubs, Pat and Mike. And this is Skimpy,
the monkey. I haven't named my arrow-bird yet." Then he spoke to the
animals. "This is my mother."
Johnny's mother stood there a moment, too bewildered to speak. The
leopardess licked her hand. Then Johnny led his mother to the rhinosaur.
"This is my friend Skorkin, the rhinosaur. He gave me a ride all the
way here. Isn't he beautiful?" Then he clicked to the rhinosaur, "This
is my mother."
The huge creature grunted.
"Skorkin said 'hello,'" Johnny said.
Her eyes wide with the strangeness of it all, Johnny's mother nodded a
wordless greeting to the creature.
Just then Johnny heard a sound he had been waiting for. It was the
sound of a basketball dropped from a height. He looked up to see Baba
bounding along as fast as he could come. Johnny was off at a dead run
to meet him, leaving his mother and the other animals behind.
The two of them met at top speed, and they met with such impact that
both were tumbled to the ground in a heap of arms, legs, boy and bear.
Both of them were laughing when they got to their feet.
"Oh, Baba, you bad little bear!" Johnny said. "I thought I'd never see
you again!"
"And I!" Baba said.
"You shouldn't have come back here!" Johnny said. "I'll have to punish
you right now!" He grabbed Baba suddenly by the leg, whirled him around
and around above his head and threw him as high as he could in the
air. Throwing his arms around as if frightened to death, the little
bear whimpered and clicked. But just before he hit the ground he made
himself into a ball, and bounced higher than Johnny had thrown him.
Then, on the third bounce, he landed lightly on Johnny's shoulder.
Their delight was cut short by the sight of a fat bald man who
glittered as he walked toward the crowd. For an instant Johnny was
afraid. It was Trader Harkness. Then he remembered--the trader's days
of power were over.
"Mr. Harkness," he called, "I've got something to show you."
"They said you had claws." The trader's little black eyes fixed their
gaze on Johnny.
"Come on, I'll show everybody."
The crowd parted for Johnny and Baba and the trader. By this time
almost all the colonists and visiting hunters were gathered around the
rhinosaur and the leopards. A few bold souls were timidly petting the
cubs. Probably of most interest was the arrow-bird. Tired from all
its riding, it had put its head under its wing and gone fast asleep,
perched on the rhinosaur's horn.
Johnny took the bag he had made from the shirt down from where it hung
beside the arrow-bird. He untied it, revealing the many packets made
from woven rushes. Packet after packet, he spilled the claws out on to
the shirt until there was a great pile of jewels glowing before the
people.
"Where did you get them?" Trader Harkness' voice rumbled. He was
shocked and pale.
"The marva themselves gave them to me for the colony," Johnny replied.
"It's a sign that they and all the animals want to be our friends."
The trader forced his eyes away from the pile of jewels and looked over
his shoulder. Johnny was suddenly conscious of three hunters standing
behind the trader. Ed and his gang!
"I'll take those claws now," the trader said. The gang whipped out
their ato-tubes and leveled them at Johnny and Baba.
The crowd gasped and then fell silent. Johnny's father stepped up, but
one of the hunters waved him back with his gun. Johnny saw he'd been
wrong. There was plenty of fight left in the trader. He glanced around
him; the animals had become very still, waiting his word.
"Friends," Johnny clicked, "stay still. This man is a killer."
Skorkin, the rhinosaur, snorted. The arrow-bird awoke and snapped its
head into arrow position. The monkey bared its teeth, while Mona, the
leopardess, crouched to spring, the muscles of her haunches trembling.
Johnny saw the trader's eyes widen. The leopard was not three feet away
from him. Thinking fast, Johnny stepped carefully over and put a hand
on the leopard's shoulder.
"I wouldn't move, Mr. Harkness," Johnny said, his voice quavering in
spite of himself. "If you don't tell your gang to give their guns to
Captain Thompson, I'll tell the animals to charge. Maybe Ed told you
what I made the monkey do?" Johnny's heart raced. It was a bluff. He
couldn't tell the animals to charge. He knew they might be killed. No
amount of claws would be worth that.
The trader's eyes were fixed on Mona. Then Skorkin snorted again, eager
to fight.
The trader turned brick red. "Do what the kid says," he said in a low,
strangled voice. The ato-tube in Ed's hand wavered and then came down.
There was a deep sigh of relief from the crowd.
Grimly and quietly, Captain Thompson gathered up the guns. "All right,
you men," he said, "there's a room ready for you at the stockade."
The fight was really gone from the trader now. His shoulders slumped,
his head down, he shuffled as he was led away.
Johnny's father stepped forward and embraced him.
"I don't understand how you did it, Johnny," he said. "I don't
understand anything about it. But this is certainly a wonderful day!"
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
_Teachers Can't Play Hookey_
It was now an hour after the Earth rocket had blasted off on its way
back to Earth. Johnny Watson lay on his stomach with his chin cupped
in his hands and looked down from the top of New Plymouth Rock. Beside
him, twisted into the same position, was his friend Baba, his blue
nails glowing in Venus' pearly light. Near the two friends, perched on
a boulder, were two of the large Venus eagles, watching every move they
made.
How changed it all was down in the settlement! People were streaming
back from the rocket field on foot and without armor. Beside the
Jenkins family strode Mona, the leopardess, carrying a basket in her
mouth. In the basket the Jenkins' baby slept. Mona just loved babies.
Down in the marshberry fields three rhinosaurs peacefully browsed.
There were so many berries available now in the sea marshes that no
one had to worry about the few in the fields. The marva had left these
three rhinosaurs to carry people wherever they might want to go.
High in the sky was a faint dot. Baba nudged Johnny and pointed.
"Here comes Keetack," he said in his clicking language. "We'll have to
go down pretty soon."
"I suppose so," Johnny said wearily.
It had been fun for a while being the only person who understood the
marva language. When Dad and the other colonists had gone into the
jungle to talk with the council of all the marva groves, Johnny and
Baba had been there too--the center of attention. When the men spoke,
Baba told the marva what they meant. When the marva spoke, Johnny
had to tell the men what the bears meant. It had been fun being so
important. It had been fun being treated like heroes, but they were
already tired of it. With their new freedom to travel, there was a
whole continent to explore, and hundreds of new friends to make.
Idly, Johnny watched the dot, that Baba said was Keetack, grow into
a bird with a twenty-foot wing spread flying through the sky. In
its claws was a small black-muzzled bouncing bear. Baba's eyes were
magically good. The bird was a Venus eagle--the marva's airplane.
Before men had come and made it dangerous for them, the marva had flown
anywhere they wanted to go in the talons of these great birds. Johnny
knew that the earliest hunters thought the eagles were preying upon the
bears. It was just one more surprising thing about the little bears.
Johnny remembered what Rick had said when he had arrived home, his
wound all healed. He had really grown to respect the marva.
"They have learned to live with other creatures, and have taught all
their friends, as they call the animals, to live in peace together. The
meat eaters have their meat trees so they don't need to attack other
animals--it's amazing," Rick reported.
Johnny remembered how Baba had preened himself when Rick had spoken
that way, and he smiled.
"Hey, Baba," Johnny said, "how soon do you think we could take a trip
all around the groves? We could get Skorkin to carry us, and go visit
everybody."
"You will have to come stay with my people," Baba said. Only a few days
before Baba had discovered a host of aunts, uncles and cousins in one
of the outlying groves. Most important of all he had found his father.
"I've lived with you for years and years. Now it should be your turn."
"Oh, good," said Johnny. "We'll do it, soon as they'll let us go."
"Look, Johnny," Baba pointed. "Look at the trader!"
Below, the fat bald-headed little man, a pack on his back, was heading
into the jungle. He waddled as he walked, but he moved straight along.
"Where's he going?" Baba asked.
"Dad says he's going to start a marshberry farm--if the marva will let
him. But, gosh, it'll be a long time before anyone will help him."
"He can always live on meat fruit and stuff," Baba said. "Nobody likes
him, but they won't bother him if he leaves them alone."
What had happened to the trader and to the outlaws was the strangest
thing of all. The marva had not wanted them punished. They said they
wanted to make friends, not enemies.
The thousands of marva claws that had been given to the colony had made
the claws quite cheap, so that Trader Harkness had become a poor man;
he had been rich in hunting equipment and hunting lodges--now all these
things were valueless. Surprisingly, he had refused to return to Earth.
"Venus is my home," he had said flatly. "I'll get by."
Johnny had to admire his courage, just as he had to admire some of the
hunters who would not stay on Venus. These lean hard-bitten men were
going further on into space.
To Johnny's surprise Keetack admired the hunters, too. "They are
fighters, like the rhinosaurs. Here there is nothing left to fight.
They are people of much courage."
Looking down on the trader, Johnny found he couldn't help feeling sorry
for him.
"Goodbye," he yelled, his voice echoing among the rocks. "Goodbye,
Trader."
The fat man looked up and waved back. Johnny thought he smiled.
"He was a real pioneer," Johnny said.
"Yes," Baba answered, "he'll be all right."
Johnny jumped back suddenly from the edge of the rock and hid behind
some bushes. "Here comes Mom, looking for us!"
Baba quickly dived back out of sight too.
Johnny peeked through the screening of bushes. His mother was riding
toward the rock on Skorkin, the rhinosaur! This hideout was not very
secret. Everybody on Venus knew about it. He stood up, and waved down
to her.
"I'm coming, Mother," he shouted.
His mother nodded and the big rhinosaur turned back toward the
settlement.
In a few minutes Baba and Johnny would be back in school, sitting in
front of a group of men and a group of marva. Baba would be teaching
the marva how to understand the talk of people, while Johnny taught the
men and women how to talk and understand the language of the marva. It
was a hard job.
"I guess we gotta go back!" Johnny mourned.
"I guess so!" Baba agreed sadly.
"There is only one trouble with being a teacher," said Johnny.
"Teachers just can't play hookey." Then he grinned. "Say, I've got an
idea!"
"What?" asked Baba.
"Mom hasn't been doing her homework. Let's give a test today!"
Baba slapped his furry haunches, his blue teeth glowing.
"Let's go!" Johnny clicked to the two eagles. He ran as hard as he
could and leaped off the edge of the high cliff, hurtling down and
down. Right after him, Baba jumped, too.
There was the sound of great wings, and the two tremendous Venus eagles
swept after them. One dived at Johnny, its claws spread. The long
powerful claws hooked into Johnny's belt and whisked him through the
air toward the settlement. The other grasped Baba by the shoulders.
Together the two friends flew on.
"That was fun!" said Johnny.
His furry blue pal nodded his agreement.
Facts About Venus
An Afterword for Curious Boys and Girls (As well as Parents, Teachers
and Librarians)
"Daddy, is this what Venus is really like?" demanded Blake, my
eleven-year-old son. He had just finished reading my manuscript.
I have an idea that among my readers there may be other curious boys
and girls who might ask the same question my son did. This was my
answer:
The job of a science fiction writer, I think, is to spin out tales
about other times and strange planets, using known facts as beginning
points, and without violating any known facts. In _Venus Boy_ I have
tried to do this. I think I have created a picture of life on the
surface of Venus that is possible, if just barely possible.
In addition to being a story teller, I am a librarian, and librarians
love to keep their facts straight. The fact about Venus is that nobody
knows just what it is like on the surface of the planet. Since nobody
knows, I could make it all up.
Many facts _are_ known about Venus, however. Venus is the Sun's
second planet. It is about twenty-five million miles closer to the
Sun than our Earth. Astronomers have measured and "weighed" it. It
is almost exactly the same size as Earth, but its weight (mass) is
twenty per cent less. It turns very slowly on its axis, so that its day
is much longer than an Earth day. Because of a layer of clouds that
surrounds it, the surface cannot be seen even with the most powerful
of telescopes. Thus, astronomers cannot tell just how fast or slow it
turns. A Venus day may be as short as fourteen Earth days or as long as
two hundred and twenty-five Earth days.
If you noticed, you can see I have kept my picture of life on Venus
true to these facts. I had the Venus day be fourteen Earth days long.
Some of the animals and plants were a great deal larger than Earth
animals and plants, a fact that would be expected on a planet with less
gravity than that of Earth.
Of course you might think that because of the clouds that surround
Venus, the planet would be a terribly rainy place. That is not very
probable. By using an instrument called a spectrograph, astronomers
have learned that those heavy clouds are not clouds of water vapor.
Indeed, they can find evidence for little or no water vapor on Venus.
They can detect a great deal of carbon dioxide--but no oxygen.
"But without oxygen, animals couldn't breathe!" I can hear a child who
knows some science say. "Life would be impossible!"
That could be true. Some scientists, in fact most of them, believe
that life _is_ impossible on the surface of Venus. But remember, nobody
knows what is under that heavy layer of clouds, and nobody knows just
what those clouds are.
One astronomer, Rupert Wildt, has advanced a theory about the Venusian
clouds that, I think, would allow for the possibility of life on Venus.
He theorized, on the evidence available to him, that, when Venus was
young, carbon-dioxide and water, in the presence of ultra-violet light,
may have combined to make clouds of one form of plastic! I think it
possible that such clouds would be thick, spongy and permanent, and
that they would join together, so that the inner atmosphere of Venus
could not escape through them. According to his theory Venus could be
like a Christmas present--all wrapped in shining plastic. This could
account for the fact, too, that more than half the light falling on it
from the sun is reflected, making it the brightest of all the planets
or stars, a jewel of a planet.
Under a loose layer of plastic, life could be possible on Venus. If
plant life began under those clouds, then an oxygen atmosphere could
develop. Plants take in carbon dioxide through their leaves and give
out oxygen. Many scientists believe the Earth's atmosphere became rich
with oxygen in this manner. Of course, none of that oxygen in Venus'
atmosphere could get through the thick layer of spongy plastic clouds.
The carbon dioxide that was trapped on the outside would not get
through either.
Scientists believe, too, that Venus may be too hot for life, or too
cold. I think that the clouds and the carbon dioxide trapped outside of
them would serve, on the one hand, to insulate Venus from the hot light
of the nearby sun; and, on the other hand, to hold in its warmth during
the long nights.
As you can see, I have spun my story out of Mr. Wildt's idea of the
plastic clouds of Venus. The rhinosaurs heavy armor, the arrow-bird's
bills, the marva's plastic-strengthening jewel claws, all had their
beginnings in the idea of a plastic planet. It allowed for the creation
of some fairly interesting animals, I think.
While I am on the subject of my animals, I should say a word about the
possibility of animals cooperating the way I have had my Venus animals
cooperate. That, I think, is perfectly possible. On Earth one can find
examples of several creatures living so closely together that if one
kind is killed off the others would all die. In many articles and books
Mr. Ashley Montague has amassed much evidence that shows an instinct
for cooperation is as primary as the instinct of self-preservation. If
we grant the idea of a creature whose intelligence is directed entirely
toward surviving by cooperation, then I think my cooperative animals
are, at the very least, possible.
Possible! That is what I hope my picture of life on Venus is. However,
it must be remembered that it is only _just_ possible. Astronomers
have envisioned Venus as a planet of terrible dust storms, with a
temperature hot enough to boil water. They have spoken of it as a
place of seas of formaldehyde, hot and terrible by day, and freezing
cold at night. Their guesses are probably better than mine. But I must
admit I like my guess a little better. I hope you have enjoyed it.