She called to me. "Come, my dear one." She slipped down into a crevice
a little to one side of the crest. "Come, I hear the voice of your
friend Campbell in the box."
"I'm coming. Speak to him, Vauna. Tell him to wait."
"Shall I tell him the news?"
I didn't answer. The vertical surfaces of the scales folded together,
parted, folded again, with the motions of the great creature, and for
a moment I lost sight of Vauna. But I could hear her voice as I fought
my way down to her hiding place. She was talking through the radio with
Campbell.
"You are safe on the big silver ship?... Yes, we are on Kao-Wagwattl. I
have been looking after Omosla...."
I could hear the eagerness in Campbell's voice as he asked about
Omosla. Vauna answered him in accents of joy. "She has had her
baby ... A little girl! Very beautiful. Already she looks like you.
_She has precious little lines of hair on her eyelids, and above her
eyes, just like yours._"
The damage was done! There was no point in my lying to Campbell to
spare his feelings. Her words were the simple innocent truth. She was
happy and proud to tell the wonderful news. Her words implied that
Campbell would of course come and join us when his work was done, so he
could be Omosla's husband, as all the Benzendellas expected.
About all I could say to Campbell was, "What she says is true, Split.
It's a beautiful baby. Any father should be proud. I have nothing to
add."
For hours afterward I could think of nothing else. I sat hidden among
the deep soft scales, listening. Now and then the gentle movement would
cause the crevices around me to gape open, wide enough to reveal a
strip of sky. I wondered if sometime I might catch sight of a space
ship bolting off into the blue. The only sounds I heard were the
faint muffled rumblings of the Kao-Wagwattl moving along, like gentle
thunder echoing up from somewhere down in the earth. It lulled me into
relaxation, yet I could not dispel the mental image of Campbell sitting
there in the ship, alone, brooding over the news. And tempted, no
doubt, to touch the controls and leave this planet behind him.
Later I talked with him again, but we did not mention Omosla. He said
he was busy with his scientific findings. I relayed to him descriptions
of the Kao-Wagwattl--the "inside" story, from one who was concealed
within its scales. We were back to our original assignment, now. For
days and days to come, we pursued the scientific facts, comparing
notes by radio.
At air-cruise speed, Campbell made trips around the planet, and
completed his charts and maps. He reported that the beautiful land
toward which we were moving was indeed a land of promise. But he
gave slower estimates of the Kao-Wagwattl's speed, and he estimated
that it would take us the larger part of a year to reach our
destination. However, he managed to get an inside view of the larger
Benzendella tribes who dwelt there. They were truly waiting for old
Tomboldo's return, and were firm in their faith that the rope of life,
Kao-Wagwattl, would bring him.
Such were the scientific and ethnological studies that Campbell and I
were to share, by radio, in the weeks and months to come....
Now Vauna was beside me. We, like the others, were settled down for the
long journey.
Innocent Vauna! She was trying so hard to please me. She sat very
close, whispering to me.
I listened, and smiled, and tried to take my thoughts away from the
image of Campbell, his honor shattered by her recent words to him about
the baby--a baby with eyelashes--a baby that resembled him.
If I remained silent, Vauna would tease me into talking with her. "Do
my words displease you, Captain?"
"Your words please me very much."
"You do not look at me. You only look away. Do you want me to sit close
beside you?"
I drew her in my arms and held her. In silence I thought a thousand
thoughts that I had brought with me across millions of miles of space.
Later I said to her, "Your arms are warm. Why don't you take these fur
things off your elbows, to be more comfortable?"
She smiled, and kissed me as I had taught her to kiss. "You want me
to?" And she removed the furry white elbow ornaments. It was very
strange.... While we hovered close, she whispered to me of the secrets
of life on this planet, unlike any other world I had known. And there
were curious legends of Kao-Wagwattl, things she had carried in her
heart to tell me if such a time as this should ever come.
As she talked, the pressure of the scale walls around us increased.
The great Kao-Wagwattl was evidently moving through a dip, so that its
upper surfaces were compressed. There was no lack of air for breathing,
but the darkness and the pressure added strangeness to the sensation.
The tightness of Vauna's arms against my own caused my head to spin.
Perhaps it was the fever returning from my recent illness. My arms felt
the stinging sensation of being penetrated by needles. My thoughts
flicked back to something Split Campbell had once told me....
Later, when the Kao curved over a summit, and the patches of sunlight
dashed in, I suggested that Vauna go forward to see about her father.
She answered me with a curious smile. I snuggled deeper into the shade
of the scales and slept. Hours later, when I awakened, she was again
beside me.
10.
If Omosla's baby had been a boy, I believe that old Tomboldo would
have named it for the highest honor in the Benzendella world. He
was searching for a successor. Not among the grown-up warriors and
counsellors. Among the infants. He sought a child favored by nature.
Omosla was a beauty and a court favorite, even though she had been
a servant. And Campbell, who was considered to be her mate, (though
marriage had been delayed by circumstances) was of course a renowned
hero. If the child had only been a boy!
I was kept busy reporting the reasons for Campbell's absence. He had
stayed with our ship to guarantee Benzendella safety. Yes, it was true
that he could fly through the air and catch up with us. But there were
duties which kept him away.
My excuses wore thin. Vauna and her father begged me to tell him, over
the radio, that Omosla was growing into a person of sorrow. The shadow
of tragedy hovered over her.
I complied. I talked, by radio, with Campbell. He was in another
part of the land, now, pursuing the purposes for which we had come.
My mention of Omosla's plight aroused his defiance. He said he would
rather be a deserter than serve a captain who did not accept his word.
"For the last time, Captain Linden, I repeat that I am not the mate of
Omosla. Do you believe me?"
"I don't know what to believe," I said.
His radio clicked off.
Vauna and her father and I secluded ourselves among the scales and
talked. My one question was, Could there have been any other person
among them who had come from another planet?
"You and Campbell. No others."
"How can you be sure?" I pursued. "Suppose someone from my world
wished to pass for a native. Suppose he should pluck the hairs from
his eyelids and cut away his eyebrows. Would you know him to be an
outsider?"
"Come," Vauna said. "We'll walk from one end of the tribe to the other."
While the great endless Kao-Wagwattl carried us on, through deep
valleys and across wide plains, Vauna and I went about, day by day,
studying the looks of each male member of the tribe.
I scrutinized the eyes of each. I listened to the native enunciations.
I got acquainted with each man by name and personality. Vauna's
friendship to all was a help. Through her I began to gain a bond of
affection for all these people, deep and solid. Their ways became
natural to me. In the night their sleep-singing could be heard, welling
up softly through the scales within which they rested. In the mornings
one could see the parties of agile ones gathering food and liquid
fruits that rolled within reach along the sides of the moving Kao.
We crossed a series of islands. For long spaces there would be danger
of dips under the surfaces of waters. We would close ourselves tightly
within the waterproof interstices until the danger had passed. Later,
when the slimy surfaces of the scales had dried off, we would emerge.
And now, out of a chance conversation, I learned of another danger
which had been with us all along. Gravgak was also on the Kao-Wagwattl.
"How did you know this?" I asked Vauna sharply.
"Didn't my father tell you? I received a warning soon after we began
the journey."
"Warning--from whom?"
"From Leeger."
"Leeger! I thought he was missing."
"He reappeared. He had known of our plan. He had boarded, somewhere. He
was back there, beyond the end of our party. He shouted the warning to
me. That is why you and I moved up the line, and have kept ourselves
hidden."
"He shouted a warning to you--"
"That Gravgak is also on board, looking for me."
11.
Weeks earlier, a search party had given up. It had all happened
quietly. Tomboldo had kept a few of his top scouts on the job (as I now
learned) and for months after our journey had begun they had scoured
the scaly surfaces of Kao-Wagwattl, looking in vain for Gravgak.
Could we rest assured, then, that Gravgak had been bluffed out? That
he had given up his purpose of trying to take Vauna? That he had long
since climbed off the Kao-Wagwattl and gone back home?
We hoped so. Nevertheless we moved cautiously as our searches took us
back through the long line of Benzendellas.
Then, without warning, we suddenly came upon Leeger. He saw us from a
distance of fifty yards or less. We had come to the end of our tribe's
settlement--evidently beyond the end; for in the last quarter of a mile
we had found no persons dwelling among the scales.
"He motioned to us," Vauna said. "I'm sure it was Leeger."
But Leeger had disappeared from view. Back of us now was the wilderness
of scales, their curved surface glistening and alive with color as the
endless crawling spine followed us out of the distant blue haze. Miles
of Kao-Wagwattl, and nothing showing on the surface.
We were down, now, almost out of sight, yet peering over. Suddenly the
form of Leeger bobbed up again, only a few feet from us.
"Go back!" Leeger cried, flinging a hand at us. "Go back! He's coming!"
It all happened in less time than it can be told. Leeger rose up to
warn us. We saw the knife fly through the air at him. He fell with the
blade through his throat.
On the instant we saw the dark muscular form of Gravgak rearing up
among the scales. The green-and-black diamond-shaped markings on his
arms and legs glinted in the light. He had hurled his knife true.
Triumph shone in his murderous eyes. He had killed the man who had
stalked him to protect Vauna and Tomboldo. And now he must have
believed that one of his prizes was within easy reach.
His arm flashed upward. It held one of those rockstrung clubs that the
savages used so skillfully.
The weighted club whizzed through the air. I swung Vauna off her feet.
I'll swear the rolling movement of Kao-Wagwattl helped me or I wouldn't
have succeeded. We tumbled into the crevice.
Then I scrambled upward. Another glimpse of Gravgak. He dived down
among the crevices, moving in our direction. A moment of darkness. The
scale-tops closed out the light. When they opened, he was there, coming
at us.
I locked with him. We fought. The movement of the surfaces gave us an
upward thrust. I kicked and tumbled to the surface. He caught my wrist,
but the upthrust of the Kao favored me and I jerked him upward, onto
the top of the scales.
We fought in the open. The rubbery footing was deadly, but it played
no favorites. I struck a heavy blow that made the green-and-black lined
arms shudder. Gravgak's eyes flashed as he plunged back at me. I struck
him again, with the full force of my body. He bounced and tumbled. He
rolled out of sight. But not for long. It was an intentional trick. He
disappeared in the crevice where Leeger had fallen. When he came up,
the bloody knife was in his hand. I heard Vauna's warning cry.
I leaped down into the crevice. She was trying to get my coat. She knew
there were explosives in it, if she could only get them into my hands.
No time for that. Gravgak leaped down at me. The knife was rigid from
his hand, coming down with a plunge. I kicked back, floundering against
the tricky walls of the scales, and Gravgak fell down deep where I had
been. I saw it happen. A sight I never expect to see repeated.
His descent to the base of the scales, where the walls joined, might
have been a harmless fall. Yet who knows how sensitive is the material
of the vast living thing called Kao-Wagwattl? The knife plunged into
deep _Kao flesh_ beneath our feet. The flesh opened. Gravgak
whirled, tried to escape the opening. His arm twisted under him. And
went down. As if something drew it. His back--his whole body, from
hips to shoulders--was caught in the gaping hole that he had seemingly
opened with a plunge of the knife blade. It closed on him. It severed
him. Part of him was gone. Before our eyes there remained his legs, cut
clean away. And his head, and part of one shoulder.
The rest of him? It would not return to sight. Kao-Wagwattl was a
living thing. When it wished it could devour.
Many of the tribe came back to this spot to examine what remained of
the traitorous guard. I too observed him closely. I examined his eyes
with a glass. Also the eyes of the murdered Leeger. Neither showed any
traces of eyelashes or eyebrows.
12.
The tribe rode on tranquilly. There would be new legends of
Kao-Wagwattl, after what had occurred. Many were the stories, and I
relayed them to Campbell, at the ship, who faithfully recorded them all.
There was a tragedy to be added. It could not have been otherwise. For
some months the news of Omosla and her little daughter had been vague.
It was the Benzendella tradition that weddings should not be delayed
for long after the arrival of the first-born child. It was rumored that
this young mother now faced the shame of having been left without a
mate. It was hard to get exact information. Even though Vauna and I had
always sought an understanding between us, some things were not talked
about freely. Deepest, most important truths in new worlds are often
the most elusive. Now I questioned Vauna closely, and I learned of the
tragic end of Omosla.
"She and her baby are no longer with us," Vauna said quietly. "It
happened one night when the stars seemed very close. They say she had
studied the sky each night, wondering which of the worlds beyond was
the world of Campbell."
"And then?"
"Two of her caretakers saw it happen, but they could not stop it. With
the babe in her arms, she walked over the side of Kao-Wagwattl. And
went down. Under."
Vauna went on to tell me that Tomboldo had urged silence about it.
He would always believe that the girl had lost faith too soon--that
Campbell might have come back when his work was done. Moreover,
Tomboldo felt that it was important to the morale of the tribe that
both Campbell and I be held in high esteem.
When Vauna finished telling me these things, she said she would ask me
the questions she had been saving for many days. "Did you believe, Jim,
that you would find some other person among us from your world?"
"I didn't know."
"If you had found such a person, what would you have believed then?"
"That he, and not Campbell, was the father of Omosla's child."
"And what," Vauna asked, "are you going to believe about us when our
child is born?"
13.
We were around on the other side of the planet by now. I estimated that
we had traveled more than seven thousand hours.
By this time many things had happened. So much that I doubted my
ability to convey all the news to Campbell so that he would get a clear
understanding. I had lain awake nights trying to formulate my message.
If my words failed, I only hoped that my tone of voice would convey my
appreciation. My appreciation of him. Of what he had gone through. Of
what he must yet go through.
He talked with me quietly through the radio, and I could visualize him
as if I were sitting beside him again in the space ship.
"Yes, Linden. Go on. I'm listening."
I told him of the death of Omosla and the child. He was deeply grieved.
It was a long time before he found voice to speak.
"Go ahead, Linden. I'm listening."
"I have more news," I said. "But tell me of yourself, Campbell. Have
you gone ahead, playing your lone hand?"
"I've found my way into the customs of the savages, Linden. They
have their own legends of Kao-Wagwattl. I can predict that in time
the gap can be bridged between them and the Benzendellas. If we work
carefully--men like you, Linden, working from within, and other agents
from EGGWE that are sure to follow. I believe this planet can be spared
the torments of great wars."
"Yes, Campbell ... and you, personally ... are you well? Are you still
bristling with your usual self-discipline?"
"In case you have any doubts about the matter," his voice was slightly
caustic, "I haven't broken the Code."
"In Omosla's case I wish you had," I said.
"I wish it too," Campbell's voice came back, now in a lowered tone. "I
loved Omosla. I would have been her mate, gladly."
"But you were, Campbell."
"Now, don't start that again, Linden, or I'll--"
"Wait, Campbell, don't cut me off. You must hear all of my news, first.
Most important of all, old Tomboldo has chosen my own son to be his
successor. He'll be groomed for the job all through his childhood, and
I've decided to stay right here, Code or no Code, and see him through."
"Your _son_?" Campbell's voice was mostly breath. "Who are you
talking about?"
"Our baby--Vauna's and mine. It's several days old. Doing fine. Has
eyebrows just like mine. Chalk-dust skin like hers."
Campbell blurted. "Do you mean to tell me that as soon as you and Vauna
boarded the Kao--"
"The ways of life on this planet are something you and I ought to know
about, Campbell. Listen closely--"
"Shoot!"
In words of one syllable I explained, then, what I had at last learned:
that the human beings of this planet were not precisely like those
of the Earth. They were unquestionably related, somewhere back down
through the ages. But Nature had worked a significant change in the
process by which new life could be started. Fertilization in the female
was accomplished by her own action and her own preference. Nature had
equipped her arms--
"Arms, did you say?" Campbell fairly shouted through the radio. "Go on."
I continued. Nature had equipped her arms, I explained, with tiny
thorn-like projections which could penetrate the arms or sides of the
male like needles. By this means she drew blood from his bloodstream. A
very slight transfusion of male blood into the female bloodstream was
the act that accomplished fertilization.
"You see, Campbell, woman does not bear a child except by her own
premeditated choice," I explained. "You and I were puzzled by the elbow
furs all these women wear. Now you see. It's a natural bit of extra
clothing. The dictates of modesty."
"Well!" Campbell said. "Then you and I allowed ourselves--"
"We were simply chosen. Not knowing the score, we were innocent
bystanders--well, more or less innocent--and pitifully ignorant.
Unfortunately for us, these were matters the Benzendellas don't talk
about freely."
Campbell paused for a moment of confused thinking. "Just a minute,
Captain. I've been observing these savages--home life and all. There's
no lack of normal affections among them, in our own sense of the word.
They're equipped physically, just as we are--plus the arm thorns. They
have the same organs, the same functions--"
"For purposes of affection, yes. But the arms--that's separate--for
conception."
"Well I'll be blasted!" Campbell was speechless for a long moment.
Then, "I think I'll go back to Earth."
I was not surprised at his decision. It was what I expected, what
I would have advised. He had had more than one man's share of this
planet, for one who didn't expect to take root here. But my own life
here was just beginning.
I had thought it out. My guess was that my long record of service for
the EGGWE could withstand some variation. An application for release
would very likely win an approval, especially in view of my change to
serve the EGGWE purposes even better by becoming a Benzendella.
When I announced this plan, by radio, to the new Captain Campbell,
formerly known as Split, but now commonly referred to on this planet as
the hero of the Benzendella migration, he said he was not surprised.
"Congratulations, Linden, for knowing what you wanted. Stay aboard that
Kao-Wagwattl. There's a beautiful land waiting for you up ahead."