Part 20 (1/2)

They went up to the village site, where the colonists were sleeping in the way a herd is bedded down together. They awoke Frank and Martha, Ahmed and Dirk, and told them of their plan. Louie, too, awoke, heard the plan, and tried to warn them against it. Any attempt, he said, to communicate with those not on Eden would surely increase the wrath of Those who wanted only the natural state here--a wrath still withheld because of superhuman mercy, but which must not be tried too far.

In spite of his warnings, Cal, and those co-operating with him, got together enough colonists to carry out his plan.

Good-naturedly, the colonists did as they were told, but with the att.i.tude that it was something amusing, that there was nothing they'd rather be doing at the moment. Any sense of urgency about communicating with home seemed to have been washed from their minds.

In a clear s.p.a.ce, on the soft gra.s.s, Cal got the colonists to sit or lie in certain positions. Checked against Tom's knowledge of ancient signal patterns, those certain positions took the shape of s.p.a.ce-navy patterns.

Three men lay in a triangle. Next to that, six men sat in a circle, and last three more men lay in another triangle. Cal hoped someone on the s.h.i.+p would be able to read the ancient message.

”Keep clear of me. I am maneuvering with difficulty.”

The signal had no more than formed when there was a flash from the s.h.i.+p so bright that it could be seen in the morning sky. They had read his signal, and now they began a series of flashes, of questions. ”What's going on down there?” was the essence of their questioning.

It was well the s.h.i.+p had caught the first signal, for the colonists lost all interest in the game which had no point. They simply stood up and wandered away in search of their breakfasts from the trees and bushes.

Louie, who had stood to one side glowering, now took charge of them again and shepherded them to a grove of trees where the fruit seemed especially large and succulent.

But now that the s.h.i.+p had spotted him, Cal could signal alone. He lay down on the ground, himself, to move his arms in semaph.o.r.e positions.

But even as he lay back, he became conscious that he, too, could hardly care less. With a detached interest that amounted to amus.e.m.e.nt at such childish, primitive things, he watched his arms spell out one more message.

”Keep off! No mechanical science allowed in this co-ordinate system.”

He stood up then, and made a farewell gesture toward the s.h.i.+p.

At that instant he felt strangely that he had pa.s.sed into another stage of growth, completed a task, cut himself off from an environment that had held him back. What the s.h.i.+p did, in response to his warnings, no longer mattered. If it landed, its personnel too would join the colonists. If it obeyed the request of an E, it might circle there indefinitely.

Indefinitely watching the turkeys circle inside their low fence, unable to aid them, release them.

He did not particularly care what they did.

They could go on, spluttering out their signals, trying to question him.

He didn't even try to read their messages. It didn't matter. Their science had nothing to do with him, nothing to offer him. Through it he could not reach a solution.

Somehow he knew that already.

19

”This time,” the communications supervisor said with all the firmness he could muster, ”this time there must not be any interference with communication. There just absolutely must not be!”

”Well, it wasn't my fault,” the operator retorted with an exasperation that blanketed prudent restraint. ”You heard what E McGinnis said--that they could identify E Gray, and the s.h.i.+p's crew, and many of the colonists, but that there was no sign of the s.h.i.+p that took them there.

If there wasn't any s.h.i.+p there couldn't be any communication. It's not my fault. I can't receive something that wasn't sent.”

”I know, I know,” the supervisor said, and then, worried that he may be giving the appearance of backing down, commanded savagely, ”just watch it, that's all!” He chewed violently at his knuckle and glared at the operator.

”Just watch it,” the operator mumbled bitterly. ”Just watch it, the man says. And what will I watch if the message stops coming?”

”Now, now, now, now,” the supervisor nagged, ”we'll have no insubordination, if you please.”

And upstairs this time more than Bill Hayes, sector chief, were monitoring the message. The top administrative bra.s.s of E.H.Q. were a.s.sembled in their big plush conference room used for arriving at major policy decisions that sometimes affected the whole course of man's progress and direction in occupying the universe.