Part 8 (2/2)
”They don't graze like cattle.” Again, Penny spoke with expert a.s.surance. ”They graze more like sheep or goats. Look at that, Rance-they don't hardly leave anything behind 'em. They crop everything right on down to the ground.”
”You're right,” Auerbach said. He could see from which direction the herd of zisuili was coming by the bare, trampled dirt behind them. ”Wonder how the antelopes are going to like that-and the real cows, too.”
Moroka wasn't worrying about it. He was still laughing. ”But the Lizards, they do not use their cows to buy wives, oh no. They have no wives to buy. I should be like a Lizard, eh?” He found that funny as h.e.l.l.
Auerbach hadn't thought about the Lizards' having their own domestic animals back on their home planet. He supposed it made sense that they would. They didn't have trouble with much Earthly food, so ... He tapped Joseph Moroka one more time. ”Anybody tried eating these things yet?”
”We are not supposed to,” the cabby replied. Auerbach coughed impatiently. That wasn't an answer, and he knew it. After a moment, Moroka went on, ”I hear-I only hear, now; I do not know-I hear they taste like chicken.”
Atvar studied a map of the subregion of the main continental ma.s.s called China. ”We make progress,” he said in some satisfaction.
”Truth, Exalted Fleetlord,” replied Kirel, the s.h.i.+plord of the 127th Emperor Hetto, 127th Emperor Hetto, the banners.h.i.+p of the conquest fleet. ”We have taken Harbin back from the rebellious Tosevites, and this other city, this Peking, cannot hold out against us much longer.” the banners.h.i.+p of the conquest fleet. ”We have taken Harbin back from the rebellious Tosevites, and this other city, this Peking, cannot hold out against us much longer.”
”I should hope not, at any rate,” Atvar said. ”The Chinese have no landcruisers and no aircraft to speak of. Without them, they can still be most troublesome, but they cannot hope to defeat us in the long run.”
”Truth,” Kirel said again. He was solid and conservative and sensible; Atvar trusted him as far as he trusted any male on Tosev 3. Back during the fighting, Kirel had had his chances to overthrow the fleetlord, especially during Straha's uprising after the Tosevites detonated their first explosive-metal bomb. He hadn't used them. If that didn't establish his reliability, nothing would.
Thinking of explosive-metal bombs in that context made the fleetlord think of them in this one as well. ”These Big Uglies, the Emperor be praised, cannot lure a great part of our forces forward and then destroy them with a single blast.”
Kirel cast down his eyes. ”Emperor be praised, indeed,” he said. ”You speak truth again, Exalted Fleetlord: they are too primitive to create explosive-metal bombs. Some other Tosevite not-empire would have to provide them with such weapons before they could use them.”
Atvar swung both eye turrets toward the second most senior male from the conquest fleet. ”Now that is a genuinely appalling thought. The Chinese must understand that, if they did such a thing, we would bomb them without mercy in retaliation. Unlike the independent not-empires, they could not hope to respond in kind.”
”Even so.” Kirel gestured in agreement. ”We could destroy half their population without doing the planet as a whole severe damage.”
But the fleetlord remained worried. ”I wonder how much they would mind. Along with India, which presents its own problems, China is the subregion that reminds me most urgently of how many Big Uglies there are, and how few of us. The Chinese Tosevites are liable to be willing to accept the loss of half their number in the hope that doing so would damage us more in the long run.”
”Exalted Fleetlord, when have you ever known Big Uglies to think of the long run?” Kirel asked.
”Well, that is also a truth, and a good thing for us that it is, too,” Atvar said. ”Even so, you have given me something new to worry about. After so long here, I thought I had exhausted the possibilities.”
”I am sorry, Exalted Fleetlord.” Kirel bent into the posture of respect. ”Do you think warning the independent not-empires against pursuing such a course would be worthwhile?”
After brief consideration, Atvar made the negative hand gesture. ”I fear it would be likelier to give them ideas that have not yet occurred to them, although I admit that ideas of a troublesome sort very readily occur to Big Uglies.”
”So they do.” Kirel used an emphatic cough. ”Still, though, in spite of the difficulties the Tosevites pose, we do make progress all over this world.”
”Some. Not enough,” Atvar said. Kirel had put him in a fretful mood. ”I would give a great deal-I would give almost anything I can think of-to know, for instance, which of the not-empires did in fact attack the colonization fleet. That, by the Emperor, would be a vengeance worth taking.”
”Indeed it would.” Kirel sighed. ”But, knowing the enormity of the crime they were committing, those Big Uglies took pains to conceal their footprints.”
”One day, we shall know. One day, they will pay,” Atvar said. ”And that will be progress, too, a step we can measure.”
”Indeed it will,” Kirel agreed. ”I was, I confess, thinking of smaller steps: for instance, it is good to taste the flesh of our own domestic animals again, after so long living on solely Tosevite rations.”
”I will not say you are wrong, for I think you are right. The thought of grilled azwaca cutlets makes my mouth water.” Atvar had always been especially fond of azwaca. He walked over to the window of his suite and looked west across the great river toward the pyramidal funerary monuments that pa.s.sed for ancient on Tosev 3. In the green strips between the monuments and the river, azwaca were grazing, though without magnification he could not see them.
”I am more partial to zisuili myself, but the taste of every one of the beasts is a reminder of Home,” Kirel said.
”Truth. But do you know what?” Atvar asked. He waited for Kirel to make the negative hand gesture, then continued, ”I have already begun receiving complaints from Tosevite agriculturalists and pastoralists to the effect that our domestic animals graze so thoroughly, no fodder is left for any of theirs.”
”I had not heard of such complaints, but they do not surprise me,” Kirel said. ”Tosevite grazers have evolved in an environment of relative abundance. Because moisture is more widespread here than back on Home, so is vegetation. Tosevite animals can afford to leave some behind and still flourish. Our own beasts, by the nature of the terrain to which they are adapted, have to be more efficient.”
”Over the course of time, it will be interesting to see what they do to the ecosystems in which they find themselves,” Atvar said. ”They may well make large stretches of this world resemble Home more closely than is now the case.”
”Do we have a.n.a.lysts examining the issue?” Kirel asked.
”I do not,” Atvar answered. ”Reffet should: this is, after all, more properly an issue involving the colonization of this planet than its conquest. But what Reffet should be doing and what he is doing are too often not one and the same.” He scribbled a note to himself. ”I shall send an inquiry.”
”He will resent it,” Kirel said.
”He resents everything I do and everything I do not do,” the fleetlord said scornfully. ”Let him resent this, too. But if Tosevite ecosystems become more Homelike, that will aid in a.s.similating this world into the Empire, will it not? I can justify the query on those grounds.”
”No doubt you can, Exalted Fleetlord. Fleetlord Reffet will still resent it.” Kirel had long since made plain that his opinion of the head of the colonization fleet was not high. That had not failed to endear him to the head of the conquest fleet. He added, ”Since you are rationalizing it as a conquest issue, perhaps our experts should should also examine it.” also examine it.”
”Perhaps they should.” Atvar sighed. ”We are stretched very thin. We have been stretched very thin-thinner than anyone ever imagined we would be-since we came to Tosev 3 and discovered the inadequacies of the data our probe sent us. Well, perhaps we can stretch a little thinner yet.”
”We have said that a good many times, and we have always succeeded in stretching up till now,” Kirel said. ”We should be able to stretch once more.”
”So we should,” Atvar said. ”I keep worrying that we will eventually snap and break, but it has not happened yet. Why Why it has not happened yet, I cannot imagine, given what this world is, but it has not.” it has not happened yet, I cannot imagine, given what this world is, but it has not.”
Before Kirel could answer, Atvar's telephone hissed for attention. When he activated the screen link, his adjutant stared out at him. ”What is it, Ps.h.i.+ng?” he asked suspiciously. Ps.h.i.+ng, being one of his princ.i.p.al links to Tosev 3, was also one of his princ.i.p.al sources of bad news.
”Exalted Fleetlord-” the adjutant began, and then broke off.
Atvar's heart sank. This was going to be one of those times. Like an itch, the certainty burrowed under his scales. ”You had better tell me,” he said heavily.
”It shall be done, Exalted Fleetlord,” Ps.h.i.+ng said. Yes, he was gathering himself. Yes, that meant he needed to gather himself. After a deep pause, he went on, ”Exalted Fleetlord, there has been an attack on the desalination plants supplying fresh water to the new towns in this region.”
A map appeared on the screen beside his face. It showed the eastern coast of the peninsula the Big Uglies called Arabia that depended from the main continental ma.s.s. ”Tell me more,” Atvar said. ”How serious is this attack? Is it the work of the local Tosevites springing from their superst.i.tious fanaticism, or are the independent not-empires using them as a cloak for their own larger designs against us?”
”Those two need not be inseparable,” Kirel pointed out.
Atvar made the hand gesture of agreement, but then waved the s.h.i.+plord to silence; he wanted to hear what Ps.h.i.+ng had to say. ”One of the plants is destroyed, another badly damaged,” the adjutant reported. Red dots appeared on the map to show the affected desalination plants; the others remained amber. ”Our defense forces have slain a large number of Tosevites, all of whom appear to be native to the vicinity. Whether they were inspired or aided by other groups of Big Uglies as yet remains to be determined.”
”They were surely aided in one way or another,” Atvar said. ”They do not produce the weapons they use against us.”
”Truth,” Kirel said. ”But whether the Deutsche or the Americans or the Russkis furnished weapons for this particular attack is another matter.”
”Indeed it is.” Atvar's voice was grim. ”Adjutant, were there, for example, rockets fired at these installations?”
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