* * * * *
I had my hands full of coins, but as I heard the voice they slipped out
of my fingers and fell to the stone floor with a clanking sound. I
wheeled around and in the red sunlight that streamed through the broken
roof, I saw a human figure. A woman.
At first I thought she was smiling, and then I saw that her lips were
grim and tense. What made her look more formidable than anything was
what she held in her hand. A large-size, old fashioned thirty-eight on
a forty-five frame.
She wasn't the ghost of a vanished race. She was real, from the top of
her wavy, black hair, to the crude hand-made sandals on her feet. Her
eyes were soft and brown, but they glinted like the flash of polished
steel. Her figure was well proportioned and graceful in its curves, but
there was no mistaking hardened muscles. Her clothing, which included
shorts and a sack-like blouse, seemed to have been woven from grass
fibers, and animal skins.
I got tired of trying to watch the gun and her curves at the same time,
so I forgot about the gun, since she wasn't pulling the trigger.
"Yes," she said, "it used to be Lonesome, but now it looks like we'll
have to call it the Problem Planet."
"Good heavens," said Dave. "A fifty-percent increase in population!"
"Let's not talk about increasing the population just yet," said the
girl. "Let's get acquainted." She smiled and it made her look lots
nicer than when she was grim. She spoke to me. "Drop your pistol
holster on the floor and then frisk your friend."
I'd been so used to acting like a willow that it was no trouble at all
to obey. Besides, I figured it was only custom that made a king outrank
a queen. On a new planet a little change might work wonders.
"My name's Rosemary," she said, when I had finished. "This is my planet
and you're trespassing."
"Fiddlesticks," said Clive. "This is not your planet. I'll admit you
might have squatter's rights on a limited portion of it, but you can't
possibly claim it all."
"Here's my deed," she said, waving the gun. "Who are you?"
"He's Senator Clive Littlebrook," I explained. "I'm Dave Camptain, a
space pilot."
"I'm also the supreme court on this planet," said Clive, "and I'm
handing down a decision right now. Your claim to the whole planet is
invalid." While Rosemary looked as if she wanted to pull the trigger,
he turned to me. "You're the clerk of the court, so write down my
decision: State vs. Rosemary--uh, what's your last name, my dear?"
"None of your business," said Rosemary.
"Oh well," said Clive. "Adam and Eve didn't have last names, and until
the population is heavier, we won't need last names here."
"Here it's going to be Eve and Adam--if things progress that far," said
Rosemary.
"My dear," said Clive, "you must realize that you belong to the
minority party. It will give us a chance to practice democracy in its
simplest form. The first thing we'll vote on is disarmament. All in
favor, say Aye!"
"Aye!" I said.
"All opposed, signify by the usual sign."
"No!" said Rosemary.
"I shall have to cast the deciding vote," said Clive. "In view of
peaceful relations, I shall have to vote Aye." He smiled and extended
his hand. "Give me the gun, my dear."
"No," said Rosemary.
"My dear, you are establishing a bad precedent. Your stand may lead to
war later on. You wouldn't want the blood of millions to be on your
head?"
"I don't want my blood to be on yours either," said Rosemary.
Clive turned to me. "Dave, as chief of the police, it is your duty to
disarm the woman. She is violating the law by possessing firearms."
"We won't harm you, Rosemary," I said. I could see her point of view,
but on the other hand nobody likes to have a gun pointed at him.
"No," said Rosemary.
"Listen to reason," I said. "There are two of us and only one of you.
Sooner or later you're going to have to sleep, while we can take turns
sleeping. You can't keep that gun pointed at us forever. So you might
as well be a good sport."
"Uh-uh," said Rosemary.
"My dear," said Clive, "you are an earthling, certainly your instincts
must be for the democratic way of life. A gun speaks of tyranny."
It wasn't hard to figure she was an earthling. She spoke perfect
English and a thirty-eight on a forty-five frame isn't found on other
planets, unless earthmen brought them there. While I was curious about
her origin, I figured that at the moment there were more important
problems to solve.
This one looked near solution. As I recovered from my initial shock of
seeing a beautiful girl pointing a gun at me, I noticed the gun more
than I did at first. There were unmistakable signs of rust, and a rusty
gun is often more dangerous to the shooter than to the shootee. It was
so rusty, in fact, that I doubted if it would fire.
So I simply stepped forward and grabbed it.
* * * * *
She seemed to have been waiting for this move. No sooner had I jerked
the gun out of her hand, than she seized my wrists, turned, and pulled
me over her shoulder in a snap mare. The next thing I knew, I had
landed in a heap.
"Want to try two falls out of three?" she asked.
"No thanks," I said. I got up and examined my bruises.
"As long as Rosemary is disarmed," said Clive, "we'll go ahead with our
plans for a democracy. The first step is a free election. I'll nominate
myself for president and general manager of the planet."
"I'll nominate--" Rosemary began.
"Sorry," said Clive, "nominations are closed. Since there is no
opposition, I'll move and second that I'm elected unanimously. May I
congratulate you on your wisdom, since I'm the only one of our group
who has had political experience."
"Hey," I said, "aren't you pushing this thing a little fast?"
"It is necessary to establish a civilized government quickly," said
Clive. "And I assure you, I'll be bi-partisan in my government.
I'll appoint you, Dave, as secretary of state, and you, Rosemary, as
secretary of--hmm, let's see--how about secretary of labor?"
"No," said Rosemary.
Clive didn't seem to be upset. "Well, we must expect opposition from
the minority party. It's your privilege to refuse the nomination."
"Comes the revolution," said Rosemary.
"I was hoping we'd have no subversion," said Clive, "but if there is,
it will be dealt with promptly." He turned to me. "Now I think we'd
better go about checking our national resources." He leaned over and
picked up a handful of gold coins and stuffed them into his pocket.
Then he helped himself to some diamonds, emeralds and rubies.
Rosemary turned on her heel and walked toward the door. When she
reached it, she turned a moment: "When you get hungry, or need me, I'll
be around." Then she was gone.
"That reminds me," said Clive. "We'd better look for food."
He stooped and picked his gun off the floor.
"Uh-uh," I said. "You ruled against armament."
Clive hesitated. "But we should protect ourselves against wild
animals."
"Rosemary has been living here for quite a while," I said. "She
admitted her gun was useless, so I don't think there are any dangerous
animals. And I'm certainly not going to let her laugh at me by carrying
a gun to protect myself from her, even--even if she is a lady wrestler."
Clive nodded. "I see your point. But if we leave the guns here, she may
get them."
"I'll take care of that." I picked up both weapons and hunted till I
found what probably had been a well. I dropped them into it, albeit
with misgivings. Still, a woman's laughter is something that masculine
pride would rather die than face. Women do laugh at men, but they do it
politely, or where men can't hear them. Maybe Rosemary was laughing now.
Without the guns, though, we had a more difficult food problem. We
would have to trap animals, or depend on fish, if fish existed in the
stream that ran through the ruined city. And there were.
I sharpened a couple of sticks with my knife and we tried spearing
fish. We decided that it would take a lot of skill, and probably days
of practice. We'd have to weave some nets, and this would take time
too. I was about to suggest that we go back to the spaceship and live
on what we had, when Clive found a clam.
It was different from the terrestrial clam, in that it was almost
egg-shaped, but there was no mistaking what it was. Presently Clive had
dug up quite a pile of them from the stream and I had a little fire
glowing under some stones. On top of the stones, I piled wet moss to
steam the clams and I was just about ready to have a clam bake, when
Clive started to groan.
"What's the matter?" I asked.
"I ate a clam," he said. "Raw. It-it's poisoning me!"
Presently he was lying on the ground, writhing.
* * * * *
I was trying to stick my fingers down his throat when Rosemary
appeared. "He won't die," she said. "But I wouldn't advise eating those
clams. Nearly all of the fish are poisonous. He'll be all right in a
few minutes."
"What are we going to eat?" I asked. "Not that we're starving, but the
supply of food on our spaceship won't last forever."
"I have a garden," said Rosemary, "and I've domesticated some
livestock."
"My--uh--dear," said Clive, between groans. "I appoint you Secretary of
Agriculture."
"Let's get some things straight," said Rosemary. "This planet is not
going to be like the earth."
"But a democracy, my dear--"
"Okay, it's a democracy. I'm not opposed to freedom of government, but
there are a lot of things outside government that need changing. Back
on earth, man is the dominant sex. On this planet, woman will be."
"But there are two men, only one woman," Clive said. He was breathing a
little easier now and I judged he was recovering.
"All the more reason why woman should be dominant," said Rosemary. "I'm
more valuable."
"We're stronger. Women must have men to protect them."
"Any time you want to test your theory that you're stronger than I am,
I'm willing," said Rosemary. And she looked perfectly able to take care
of herself. I didn't know then how long she had been on the planet,
but she was hard as a rock. She'd taken care of herself in all kinds
of weather, done everything a man could do in fighting against nature.
Being a spaceman is no way to develop your biceps and neither is being
a senator.
"Hmm," said Clive. "Perhaps there should be more equality between
the sexes. But most of the things that women misinterpret are not
discrimination, but adoration."
"I don't care what it was," said Rosemary, "and I didn't say anything
about equality. Starting tomorrow, you boys will do what I tell you
to."
"But I'm the President!" Clive protested.
"And I'm the boss," said Rosemary.
* * * * *
We fixed up some of the better preserved buildings into houses.
We made tools out of sticks, stones, gold and silver. We trapped
animals and domesticated them and we planted gardens and wove clothing
out of grass and fur.
Rosemary showed us how to do most of the things and then left us to do
them while she explored the ruins and dug up items that told how the
vanished race lived.
"They were humanoid," she told us once. "I found a frieze that pictured
the inhabitants. While the art was primitive, it was easy to see that
they were a great deal like men. Probably their civilization would
compare favorably with that of Rome in Caesar's time, although I
haven't found much bronze. Probably they had iron which has rusted
away. I still haven't found what killed them, but for that matter no
one really knows what killed the dinosaur. It's probably due to the
fact that there's a critical point in the development of any species,
when that point is reached, the species dies."
"But man went farther on earth than here," I said.
"Sure, because the critical point on the earth is higher than on
Problem planet." She paused, and added: "At least that's what my father
thought."
"Your father?"
"Yes. He was an astro-archeologist," she explained. "He brought me here
when I was a little girl, only twelve years old, and he died here. I've
lived alone in this ruined city ever since."
"Didn't he have a spaceship?"
"Sure. But I didn't know how to run it."
"You mean it's still here? Can it operate?"
"I suppose so. I don't know anything about spaceships."
I almost yelled. "Why didn't you say so? We could have been on our way
to civilization long ago!"
She nodded toward Clive. "He's so happy here, being the President of
Everything."
"Good heavens, girl!" I said, "Clive's a politician. He's got to have
people. A whole planetful of people to really be happy. Right now
he's--"