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The baron turned away from the mike for a moment and grunted to the |
colonel in command of ground operations. "Start clearing the occupied |
zone. Get the population out unless they'll work for us." |
"How much notice?" |
The baron paused briefly. "Fifty hours to pack up, plus one additional |
hour for each mile the fellow has to stump it to the outer radius." |
"My translator is working badly," the voice of the elder was parroting. |
"Look," the baron grunted at the mike. "All we want is to accomplish |
what we came here for, and then get out as quickly as possible. We |
don't have much time to be polite. I invite the elders of the Geoark to |
confer in my flagship. We'll try to make everything clear to you. Is |
this agreed?" |
"My translator is working badly." |
"Aren't you getting anything?" |
A pause, then: "I understand that you wish us to come to the place where |
the sky-fleet rests." |
"Correct." |
"But what of the welcome we have made for our brethren in the |
feast-glades?" |
"I shall dispatch flyers to pick you up immediately. Unless you have |
aircraft of your own." |
"We have no machinery but the self-sustaining mechanisms in the Earth." |
"Any of your population understand the mechanisms?" |
"Certainly, brother." |
"Then bring technicians. They'll be best able to understand what we |
want, and maybe they can make it clear to you." |
"As you wish, brother." |
The baron terminated the contact and turned to his staff with a |
satisfied smile. "I think we shall have what we need and be gone |
quickly," he said. |
"The elder took it well. They must be afraid of us." |
"Respectful awe is more like it," the baron grunted. |
"I suggest the answer is in the word 'brethren,'" came a voice from the |
back of the room. |
"Meikl! What are you doing in here?" ven Klaeden barked irritably. |
"You called my department for a man. My department sent me. Shall I go |
back?" |
"It's up to you, Analyst. If you can keep your ideals corked and be |
useful." |
Meikl bowed stiffly. "Thank you, sir." |
"Having it in mind that our only objective is to go through the |
tooling-mining-fueling cycle with a minimum of trouble and time have |
you got any suggestions?" |
"About how to deal with the natives?" |
"Certainly... but with the accent on our problems." |
Meikl paused to snap the tip from an olophial and sniffed appreciatively |
at the mildly alkaloid vapor before replying. "From what we've gathered |
through limited observation, I think we'd better gather some more, and |
do our suggesting later." |
"That constitutes your entire opinion?" |
"Not quite. About the question of recessive kulturverlaengerung...." |
"Our problems, I said!" the commander snapped. |
"It's likely to be our problem, sir." |
"How?" |
"In Earth culture at the time of the Exodus, there were some patterns |
we'd regard as undesirable. We can't know whether we're still carrying |
the recessive patterns or not. And we don't know whether the patterns |
are still dominant in the natives. Suppose we get restimulated." |
"What patterns do you mean?" |
"The Exodus was a mass-desertion, in one sense, Baron." |
A moment of hush in the room. "I see what you mean," the commander |
grunted. "But 'desertion' is a pattern of action, not a transmittable |
determinant." |
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