His lips spread into a little circle on my flesh and began sucking
gently. There was no pain, just the throb of my jugular under his mouth.
Now his long, soft, hairy arms became firmer around my neck. I jerked
back and they gripped hard. A chill of panic stabbed me, and I could
feel the taut flesh of my neck drawn more deeply into his puckered lips.
I tugged at him silently, not wishing to frighten Sue. He wouldn't come
loose. In broad, noon-daylight I had a Sirian vampire in my arms,
threatening to rupture my jugular vein and kill me within speaking
distance of half a hundred people. I tried to level my voice. "Joe,
would you come out here, please?"
He came at once, stared with a blank expression and said, "You have been
drinking much tala?"
"Help me, dammit!" I said, holding my voice down. "I can't shake him
loose. He's trying to--" The long, tight arm squeezed off my breath. In
turn I tried to strangle him, but under the thick fur was a bony
protection where there should have been soft neck.
"It does no good to kill the _koodi_," Joe said. "There is always
another. Once they hold you tightly it is too late."
Sue thought differently. She came through the door like a hell-cat.
Catching up her garden hoe she swung a blow that, had it missed Toots,
would have crushed my skull. But Sue didn't miss. I fell on my back, and
Toots let go, dead of a broken spine.
* * * * *
The "liquor control board" was Benson's best idea. Not only did it put
tala on a legitimate basis, but it controlled our dealings with the
natives. Bromley, the chemist, who was the original offender, was
charged with manufacturing the wooden matches, and the medium of
exchange was concentrated in the hands of the commissary "purchasing
agent".
The reason that Benson sanctioned the controlled tala trade with the
natives stemmed from our apparent failure to sterilize the males. There
was, indeed, a huge crop of native babies, tiny little dolls that looked
like spider monkeys and dropped from their mothers' breasts after little
more than a week.
The brisk tala trade was part of our program to keep the natives in
close association while we devised ways and means to discover the cause
of our failure. All quarantine rules had long since been dropped, and
Sorenson and Bailey began inventing ruses to lure the males into the gas
chamber again.
Weeks passed while we worked our way through the whole male population
again, testing for fertility and X-raying it wherever we found it.
Through Joe we advertised new wonders to be seen in the ship, and as the
sight-seers left we tagged each with an atomized spot on the other
shoulder, indicating that he was still sterile or had just become so.
This time we tallied 496 males which, according to Joe, was certainly
the whole masculine population. The mystery of our failure at genocide
forced an unpleasant decision on Benson. The biologists and medics
insisted that we must win the natives' confidence even further to gain
their cooperation. As the heat of summer bore down and the mercury rose,
we eased off on the work schedule and deliberately planned social
functions to which we had Joe invite a group of natives. There were
picnics and beach parties where our guests brought their own tala, and
ours was carefully rationed. Group singing entranced the little golden
people, and they took remarkable delight in the discovery of their own,
sweetly pitched voices. Enterprising Joe, with his remarkable memory,
soon became unofficial song leader, and all day long we would hear the
natives practicing.
Sue's baby came, a sturdy little boy whom we named Richard Joseph--Sue
insisted on the second name, and I couldn't argue her out of it without
revealing my reasons. Within two weeks the clinic's nursery was full of
babies, and it was at this point that the natives' interest became
deeply stirred.
The language barriers were breaking down rapidly. Many of our regular
visitors were females, and with Joe's help as an interpreter they were
soon able to ask questions. Their greatest curiosity hinged on the
fabulous care we gave our infants.
Although I wouldn't permit Sue to do it, several of our women began
using female natives for baby-sitters. This led to the first basic
behaviour change we had noticed. The females began to pay more attention
to their own offspring. It was as if they had just discovered the
pleasure of fondling their babies and watching them crawl and kick and
gurgle. Even after the first week they were still carrying them around,
finding choice morsels of fruit for them, fanning off the insects and
singing them to sleep with their new-found abilities to make music.
Benson noticed it and called a meeting of the secret six. He said, "Our
little program had better work this time or we are in for it. Apparently
this _koodi_ animal that Sam had the tussle with is the principal
population control, and now the mothers are packing their kids around
until they're old enough to fight off the _koodi_."
Donnegan shook his head. "Damned if I can find out where we slipped up.
Frost and I just finished a series of tests with native ova and human
sperm. They don't mix. Of course, we didn't expect them to, but what in
hell is the answer?"
I hadn't known of this project. I said, "You didn't think that our male
colonists--"
Benson scowled with exasperation. "We don't know what to think, Sam! We
sterilized 481 native males last fall, and the babies are just as thick
as ever."
I said, "Well, we got to 496 of them this time. That should do it for
sure. Joe says he'll keep a lookout for any males without the two stains
on his shoulder."
Benson narrowed his eyes. "You know, it strikes me that Joe is being
awfully helpful. What reason did you give him for wanting this
information?"
"He didn't ask," I said.
* * * * *
Our 12-month year was composed of 37-day months, except February which
we shorted six days to make it come out even.
According to this calendar the "May-flies" came in July, just a month
before our first anniversary. The little winged insects were a seasonal
life-form, one more item that escaped the exploratory party, and for
which we were unprepared.
They came out of the north, and they struck us before we could take
shelter in the ship or our plastic-screened huts. They were a little
smaller than flying ants, and even their long wings were jet-black.
Their bites were infinitesimal, but each one smarted like a prick with a
hot needle.
In the midst of the confusion of rescuing babies and herding everyone in
doors, I noticed that all the natives had disappeared into the forest.
Everyone had suffered a hundred bites or more, and we were sorry,
swollen sights. Sue insisted that I cover myself and make a run for the
clinic to see if Dr. Bailey had any remedies for the bites. Richard
Joseph was crying loudly from the irritation, so I agreed.
It was only 75 yards to the clinic, and I made it without collecting
many more stings. But the doctors had nothing to offer. They were
dabbing various salves, astringents and pastes on test patches of their
own skin, but nothing seemed to have any effect at all.
"All we hope," said Sorenson, "is that the flies aren't
microbe-carriers."
I started out the door to return then stepped back and peered through
the screen. The forest was erupting with natives. They staggered into
the clearing, headed for the center of it and sank down as if with great
weariness. On and on they came until the ground among our buildings was
literally paved with their prone bodies.
"Poor devils." Bailey murmured as the clouds of flies continued to sweep
through our village. "Nothing we can do, though. I wonder why they come
out in the open? You'd think they had better protection in the trees."
I had no answers, so I covered my head again and made a dash for my own
hut. Inside I brushed off the clinging flies and stamped on them. "The
medics don't have any help for us," I said. Then I saw him.
Sue was struggling to hold Joe on his feet. His arms were draped loosely
over her shoulders, and for a second I couldn't decided whether he was
ill or making a pass at Sue.
I pulled him off her by one shoulder. He swung around and toppled into
my arms. Remarkably few insect bites showed under the transparent haze
of golden hair, but he reeked of tala.
"You're drunk," I yelled at him. "A lot of help you are at a time like
this!"
"Tala," he said from loose lips. "Much tala."
"You've had much tala, all right!" I said disgusted.
Sue said, "We've got to let him stay in here, Sam. The flies will eat
him alive out there." She went to the window and knocked the flies from
the outside of the screen. Then she screamed. I thought she had just
discovered the massed natives, but she kept on screaming until I went to
her and looked out.
In the late afternoon sun, fuzzy little brown animals were waddling out
of the forest, closing in on the 900 or more natives lying senseless in
the clearing. _Koodi!_ Dozens of them.
I forgot my screaming wife, my crying infant, the drunken wife-stealer
slumped on the floor. I forgot the torture of my own stings. All I
remember is snatching my pistol from its holster that hung by the door
and plunging out and pulling the trigger until fire ceased to come out
of it. Then I was kicking and smashing with a tree limb, and every blow
smashed one of the vile little ghouls into the grass. I thought I saw
Benson firing and kicking, but I blacked out before I could be sure.
I regained consciousness with the flies still keening in my ears. Sue
was calling my name and slapping me sharply in the face. Joe was trying
to pull me to my feet, but the last thing I remember is the both of us
collapsing to the ground.
* * * * *
I awoke days later with a burning fever and gloriously drunken sensation
of floating. Joe brought a fruit to me when he saw I was stirring. I
drank the thin, tangy juice in one breath and sank back into a deep
sleep again.
My next drink came from the long, slender fingers of a pretty little
female native. This time it was water, and I stayed awake. Joe came in,
saw I was awake and came back in a few minutes with Benson and Dr.
Bailey.
They both looked terrible, Benson especially. Bailey said, "Take it
easy. Sue's at the clinic. She and the baby are all right, but you
damned near didn't make it."