"My name is Paul Kennedy and I speak for all of us," the old man said.
"Captain Curry has locked up all arms from us--he's already starting
the regimentation for a permanent Technograte colony here and making
sure we can't object. For two hundred years Technogration has failed
on Earth except to turn men into robots. Here we could have a new
chance and live like humans again."
"The question," Thane reminded him.
"You were in the Frontier Guards, where men still have to think for
themselves to survive, and we were hoping you would understand why we
don't want to start another ant hill here."
He could understand--but now, after thirty years of planning and
fighting, he was only one step from the top.
"There will be Technogration," he said.
"We thought you would say that." Kennedy's expression did not change.
"We hoped we would be wrong."
An ecstatic yelping sounded suddenly from nearby and something brown
and white raced across the firelit ground with a laughing boy in
pursuit. Thane stared.
It was a dog.
He had not seen one for thirty years. Technogration prohibited the
owning of pets as an unnecessary drain upon the planned economy and as
non-contributive to the Common Good.
"We knew about the regulations," Kennedy said, "but children need
pets to love and be loved by. She's going to have pups--only she and
Lornie's kitten were left." The old man's eyes watched him closely,
questioningly. "Surely, no one will object to them?"
The dog circled back and a dark haired young woman beyond another fire
called to it: "Binkie--come here!"
The dog obeyed, its tail drooping a little, and the woman looked
uncertainly in Thane's direction before she disappeared back in the
shadows, the dog close behind her. The boy followed, asking, "Why did
you stop us, Blanche?"
Thane watched them go, the sight of the boy and dog bringing back with
unwanted vividness the memory of another Outlander boy who had played
with his dog, long ago; bringing back the past that necessity had
forced him to forget....
He put the dangerous weakness from his mind and spoke to Kennedy:
"You Outlanders were bound for a Technograte world when you left Earth.
You now stand on a Technograte world. You will do as you are ordered to
do. As for your pets--you may have as many as you want so far as I'm
concerned."
He stepped past Kennedy and continued on through the camp. The
conversation of the Outlanders froze as he drew near, letting him walk
in a little sea of silence that moved along with him. It was the usual
reaction to the presence of a Technograte officer.
A little girl was out beyond the last fire; her back turned to him as
she knelt in the grass and worked at something. He came closer and saw
she was trying to tie a white cord around the neck of a half grown
kitten. It sat with resigned patience as she struggled with earnest,
inexperienced fingers to tie a knot that would not fall apart. She was
talking to it as she worked:
"--and maybe the things in the forest kill cats. So you'll have to stay
tied up, Tommy, and close to me because you're the only kitten on this
whole world--"
His shadow fell across her and she looked up. Black curls framed a
startled little face and gray eyes went wide at the sight of his
uniform. She seized the surprised kitten and held it protectively in
her arms, the knot falling apart again on the ground.
"Please--Tommy won't ever hurt anything--"
Two women and a man were watching him from beyond the fire with
frozen-faced hatred. Technograte regulations required the immediate
killing of any animals found smuggled aboard a ship....
"I won't harm your kitten," he said. He smiled sardonically at the
Outlanders beyond the fire. "My horns aren't quite that long yet."
* * * * *
He met Curry when he was almost back to his camp. Curry had two
bodyguards with him and passed without speaking.
The hours went by and the night was like a cold October night on
Earth but for the strange constellations that crept across the sky.
The Outlander fires burned lower and the things in the forest became
silent, as though massing for a surprise attack. Twice the wind
shifted, to bring the scents from the forest, and each time he heard
the dog growl uneasily while the woman tried to quiet her.
He was going down the south guard line, the western horizon touched
with the light of coming moonrise, when the monsters attacked the north
line.
They broke suddenly from the forest with a demoniac howl of command
from their leader, a boiling wave of them. They were green, hard to see
against the green grass, racing low to the ground like giant tigers,
their long, serpentine necks thrust forward and eyes blazing yellow in
hyena faces.
The blaster fire of the Guardsmen met them, pale blue beams that
blossomed into brief incandescence when they struck. Curry's guards
added their fire, their reactions slower than those of the Guardsmen.
The guards along the other three lines turned to help halt the attack,
the south line guards firing across the Outlander camp.
The front rank of monsters went down, with them the leader. For an
instant the onslaught slowed, leaderless and uncertain, then the
monster that had been behind the leader gave the commanding howl and
the others surged ahead again.
At that moment, when the attention of every guard in every guard line
was on the north perimeter attack, the Outlander dog broke loose from
whoever had been holding her. She ignored the attack from the north and
was a blur as she went through the south guard line, screaming a snarl
of warning and her leash whipping in the air behind her. She vanished
behind the guard line and Thane swung his searchlight.
Five monsters were almost upon the backs of the unsuspecting guards,
charging without sound.
His blaster beam raked at them and two went down. The others struck
three guards with their bodies, knocking them to the ground before they
could fire. Then the monsters passed on, to lurch a dozen steps and
fall limply to the ground. They did not even twitch after they fell.
He saw, when he reached the first one, that it was dead. So were the
other two.
Yet there was not a blaster mark on them.
Then he saw another thing. One of the monsters had fallen with its jaws
slackly open and its teeth were visible. They were blunt and even.
Despite their ferocious appearance, the monsters were only herbivores.
The three fallen guards were getting to their feet, apparently
unharmed. Along the north perimeter the attack was over as suddenly
as it had begun; the leader of the monsters lying dead against the
guard line and all the others still alive fleeing wildly back into the
forest. Quiet came, broken only by the growling of the dog out near the
two monsters Thane had killed.
He turned his light on her, then went closer to make sure he had seen
rightly.
She was fighting something on the ground, green-eyed with fury as she
ripped and tore at it. But there was nothing there. Nothing.
"Binkie!"
The dark haired woman was coming toward them, wraithlike in a white
sleeping garment. The dog turned away, with a last rip at the nothing
it fought, and saw the three guards the monsters had knocked down. She
froze, like as though she saw something she could not believe.
Then, deadly with menace, a growl vibrated in her throat and she
crouched to attack them.
"Binkie--_don't_!" The voice of the girl was shrill with urgency. "Come
here--come here!"
The dog hesitated, then obeyed; going past the guards in a swift lope,
her head turned to watch them and her teeth bared in a snarl. The girl
seized the leash and girl and dog disappeared back into the Outlander
camp, both of them running.
Curry loomed out of the darkness, his two bodyguards with him, and
flashed his light over the fallen monsters.
"So you let three get through?" he said. He glanced to the north
guard line where the searchlights of the guards showed only the dark,
lifeless edge of the forest. "But no one was harmed and there's no
indication that they are going to attack again."
He regarded Thane with cold thoughtfulness. "Apparently the camp is in
no danger, after all."
To Thane the implication of his words was obvious: if the monsters were
not a menace his cooperation was no longer needed by Curry. The three
guards were Curry men and Curry had two with him. He was outnumbered
six to one....
"Sir--"
It was one of the three guards; Bellam, the ship's pharmacist. He
hurried up to Curry, the other two close behind him.