Star Science Fiction 5 - [Anthology] Read online

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  Star Science Fiction 5

  Edited By Frederik Pohl

  Proofed By MadMaxAU

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  Contents

  Trouble With Treaties Katherine Maclean and Tom Condit

  A Touch Of Grapefruit Richard Matheson

  Company Store Robert Silverberg

  Adrift On The Policy Level Chan Davis

  Sparkie’s Fall Gavin Hyde

  Star Descending Algis Budrys

  Diplomatic Coop Daniel F. Galouye

  The Scene Shifter Arthur Sellings

  Hair-Raising Adventure Rosel George Brown

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  TROUBLE WITH TREATIES

  by Katherine MacLean and Tom Condit

  Katherine MacLean is a young lady of charm and talent—not the only one such among science-fiction writers, but nearly the only one who turns her back on the feminine-writing hallmarks (love— the family—children) in order to compete with the hairiest-chested males on their own territory. How well she succeeds, this story (her first in collaboration with Tom Condit) amply demonstrates.

  Third Officer Llyllw, officer on watch of the scoutship Wllyll’n stared at the small object on the screen with a faintly puzzled expression on his furry face. The shape of the object failed to match any of the spaceships in his handbook, and yet it was undeniably a ship.

  He reached for a phone circuit to call his superior officer, and then stopped without completing the move. Usually his thoughts were slow, but his conclusions were generally extremely accurate, and, as the commendation he had received last year put it, “most orderly.”

  Unidentified ship! All ships within the Empire of Erdig the Omnipotent were built to standard types. This ship could not be from any conquered part of the Empire. This meant an unconquered alien species, another world to be Brought to Order. It was an historic moment. Quietly, hoping that his superior officer would not appear behind him, he put tracers and radar amplifiers on the alien ship, and recorded the event in the bridge log, adding his name and the time with careful precision. It would pay to have his name connected with the discovery. It would make a good counterbalance to a reprimand, and he could see a reprimand coming up.

  He turned again to the screen for a quick glance. The ship, now enlarged to seem larger and clearer, was very alien in design. He visualized alien beings inside, innocently pursuing their course, unaware that their chaotic lives were doomed to be Brought to Order. He remembered the delightful humbleness and obedience of slaves who had fueled their ship at the Thirty-Second World Brought to Order. It made a man feel good, having slaves around. The realization of the sacred Nifni mission to Bring Order out of Chaos spread a warm glow through him.

  * * * *

  Journeyman Telepath Martin Jukovsky, of the exploration ship Kemal Ataturk, five months out of Pluto and bound ingalaxy, suddenly sat up and dropped his magazine. The green parrot on his shoulder lost its balance and flew away in squawking indignation.

  “Hawwrrk! Angular Trisection! Awwrrk! Help! Help!”

  “Shush up,” said Jukovsky absently, searching for the trail of strange thoughts he had crossed so briefly. Something about Order out of Chaos...Had someone on the ship gone mad? The thought had a very strange feeling about power over people, and a mixture of terror and triumph... He found the flavor again, and thought rapidly along the fading trail of faint thought, trying to think and feel like that, tuning in, establishing an empathy. Suddenly he was tuned in, the other’s personality swirling into his mind in a hammerblow of frightened emotions and cold calculating thoughts.

  [Slaves (pleasure)... Alien Ship on screen ... Reprimand? (fear) Promotion (fear)... War...Bring to Order...What on Earth did that mean? Where was—Alien Ship... (emotions)]

  “Holy Dancing Dervish!” Jukovsky gasped, and ran barefooted to the control room to push the emergency alarm button.

  Bells jangled throughout the A ta fork. The helmsman leaped to his feet. “Hey, that’s the emergency alarm,” he shouted over the din. “Hey, Jukovsky, what’s the idea?”

  “Spaceship!” Jukovsky made a preoccupied gesture and lowered himself into a chair and started on the difficult task of tuning the other telepaths on board to the thoughts he was tracing. They came in—first Tewazi, Zorn and Candleman in a blast of curiosity, and then Hahn, disengaging himself from some far-off thought to slide in with the rest. He knew each of them, could feel as he came in: Tewazi, coolly analytical, organizing information; Zorn inquisitively searching and tracing; Candleman eagerly grasping; Hahn watching, emotions—so quiet he seemed completely unemotional—permeating his thought. They gripped and followed the thought trail.

  On board the Wllyll’n, Third Officer Lyllw was beginning to feel his fur prickle with an eerie sensation of being watched. He looked hastily over his shoulder and saw nobody. He reached for the general-alarm cord. It should have been pulled the instant the alien ship was identified as alien, but he could be executed for pulling it without orders. It was time to call the Second Officer, or even the Captain. He could be questioned about the delay. Llyllw gripped his courage and went a step closer to insubordination. With a steady hand he flipped the switch that awoke the ship’s main computer.

  The computer, Infallible Regulations and Advice, was usually used for navigation and landings, but it was also the ship’s authority for military regulations, precedents, and all rulings of his Exalted Omnipotence Erdig, Supreme Ruler of Nll’ni and Lord of Creation. The Infallible could check and recognize screen images of all known ships, and should be able to cope with an unknown ship. There were, after all, a number of regulations and precedents dealing with the Bringing to Order of an alien species.

  He waited. The ship’s screens blinked as the big computer cut into them and started watching. He waited another instant, wondering if the computer would react. His life hung in balance.

  The alarm buzzers went off with a deafening roar. The computer had recognized the emergency. A recorded voice began barking orders over the speaker system. He was safe.

  Llyllw took a deep breath and held it while he calculated. Now the Second Officer, the First Officer, the Captain, and the Strategic Captain had been by-passed. They were all going to be angry and out for his blood. He balanced this out against the fact that the Infallible Code would have his actions in its record. If he could keep himself from being executed on some pretext, until the ship returned to base, the High Servants of the Exalted Omnipotence would be well pleased with him,—they liked to have senior officers aware that the Infallible could be consulted and recordings made without their consent—it helped them fear Erdig as they should. A promotion to a different ship...

  The computer voice was roaring over the speaker system:

  “Full Military Alert. Full Military Alert. Strange Ship sighted. Hold Fire, Await Orders. Repeat Hold Fire, Await Orders. All listed experts, linguists, and personnel with contact experience un-Nll’nian species stand by for direction if off duty. Full Emergency. Repeat. Full Emergency. Ship Command ordered to turn over absolute authority to Strategic Captain. All personnel consult written regulations RMZZ947 on Bringing To Order of Alien Species.”

  The First Officer was first onto the bridge, although he had not been closest. He bounded up the ladder from his quarters, roaring, his eyes blurred and his fur matted. Obviously he had been sleeping during a Self-Improvement period.

  “Who turned information over to the Infallible?” he snarled glaring around wildly. “You, you’re the watch officer! What the idiocy is the idea?”

  Llyllw concealed the Nll’ni version of a smile and grovelled politely against a bulkhead, hiding his head.

 
“My abject apologies, Your Authority. The object was sighted at such a distance that there was no certainty that it was truly a ship. I did not want to disturb my Excellent Superiors for a matter which might be only a criminal error of judgment on my part, so I turned the problem over to the Infallible, to be sure of correct action, if only in my own deserved execution for mistaking a natural object for a ship.”

  There was a pause while the First considered the case. The regulations allowed the lowest crew member to consult the Infallible any time it was not busy with another problem. It was an insult to one’s superiors to take any such action without orders, but technically it was not a personal move, merely a consulting of regulations.

  “Face out!” The First had his expression under control and his fur sleeked when Llyllw turned. “Very good, a most patriotic action,” the First Officer complimented him stiffly. “Quite correct—by the regulations.”

  Third Officer Llyllw stiffened and saluted with precision. Behind the expressionless masks each could see the hatred and ambition in the other’s eyes. It is a long hard climb to become Captain of a ship, and your fellow officers are very much in your way.

  * * * *

  Several thousand miles away, in the other ship, Master Telepath Tewazi muttered half-hysterically as he leafed through the Handbook of Comparitive Sociology. “Diu! There must be something like this in here somewhere!”

  The four young Journeyman Telepaths were recording full speed on stenotypers, wincing occasionally at the thoughts they were recording....

  * * * *

  There was a hush on the bridge of the WIlyll’n and everyone grovelled against the bulkheads as Strategic Captain Bryllw hoisted himself up through the hatchway. He was fat and greying, and wore a captain’s uniform in purple, indicating a retired captain. He was seldom seen by the others on the ship, passing his time viewing history tapes and playing games of logic with the computer, in private. Retired Captains of much experience and success were the only ones permitted to have the berth of Strategic Captain on a military ship. It was a pleasant way for an old military man to retire, for usually there was nothing to do, except view tapes and work at hobbies.

  “Who sighted the ship?” he growled.

  Llyllw raised a hand, keeping his face to the bulkhead. “Uh! Get around, all of you. There’s more to do than cling to the wall like a flock of Moragais!”

  The officers and hands on the bridge stood at trembling attention as Bryllw looked them up and down. They had heard of his reputation as a martinet from the days he had commanded three ships.

  “There is an emergency and I shall demand intelligence and skill from you. I know this is asking much, but you will start making an effort to apply your bean-sized brains to the problem of this alien ship.”

  The Captain’s and Officers’ hackles rose at the insult, but their expressions did not change and they stared rigidly ahead.

  “You!” The grizzled Strategic Captain leveled a finger at the Navigation Officer, who was standing trembling in the rank behind the Captain. “Are all star maps prepared to be destroyed or scrambled on four-seconds’ notice?”

  The unfortunate Navigation Officer swallowed and cleared his throat, “No, Excellency.”

  “They should be,” Bryllw let a silent moment pass while he watched the Navigator inquiringly.

  The officer, expecting immediate execution, realized slowly that Bryllw was waiting for something. “Your pardon, Excellency. May I be dismissed so that I may make preparation to destroy or scramble all star charts?”

  “A most sensible plan,” Bryllw purred. “Dismissed.”

  He waited until the unfortunate Navigator was down the ladder. Then he addressed the rigid group. “Believe it or not, oh Assembly of Wisdom, there is a remote possibility that we might have met a species capable of destroying us, and they might want to know where our home planets are.”

  He directed his glower at the Captain, standing at attention with the others. “Inferior, our ship is now overtaking the alien ship. What do we do when we come within range?”

  “Open fire,” the Captain snapped, glaring at the wall.

  “Brilliant, Your Wisdom. I hope you did not strain you brain irreparably.” That was a snarl, only barely disguised as a smile. The smile vanished, and the grizzled Strategic Captain stood back a yard and let out a bellow that made them all jump.

  “You miserable imbeciles! That ship contains the only opportunity you will ever have to locate and trace a new species, and add a new planet to the Empire of Erdig. If they have detected us, they might already have destroyed all maps. And you morons want to help them, by using their ship for target practice and blowing it to bits, so that we will never be able to assemble any information from the pieces.”

  He lowered his voice to a simple tone like an adult explaining to children. “We must talk to them, make sure that they are not afraid of us, you understand? We must—”

  He turned abruptly to the Gunnery Officer. “Inferior, your long range guns are already trained on the target, preparing to blow this valuable ship to bits. Am I correct?”

  The Gunnery Officer seemed to have difficulty answering. “Gugh, ah Yess, Authority. Military alert...”

  “I am glad to see you are so efficient.” Bryllw purred. “Are the crews instructed to fire automatically if the defense screens register unusual radiation?”

  “Not without further orders, Authority.”

  “Wonderful! Then this valuable source of information will not be blasted out of space, while I am trying to explain how to seem friendly. It is safe even if they signal us on an unusual wavelength. Wonderful. It must be an accident.”

  He smiled, a genuine expression, and the trembling group of officers dared to take a few deep breaths and consider them out of danger. “We must go softly in approaching these creatures. We cannot be a warship, we must approach them as civilians, like a trader ship. Please study to act like civilians. Anyone who has associated with civilians or bought from traders in civilian stores please show the others how civilians act. We will be learning their language, humbly so as to trade with them, you understand, and whoever is in front of the viewscreen must seem like a civilian, and very humble and polite. You understand?” He looked at their rigid faces and detected signs of resistance and stood back to bellow again.

  “Let us have no show of pride, no signs of Nll’nian superiority. Is that clear? Anyone who gives the slightest indication that this is a warship, or that he personally is accustomed to weapons of war, will be executed—immediately!”

  The grizzled warrior looked at the rigid and trembling officers and men with satisfaction. He lowered his bellow to a conversational tone.

  “I am going to retire to my quarters and leave the opening moves to you, Captain. Remember that these creatures do not know anything about us, and present to them whatever lie is least alarming. Do not consult the Infallible or make any change of plans without first consulting me.”

  He smiled at the rigid group. “To save us from the pain and embarrassment of many executions, I will remove the need of your committing errors by conducting the preliminary negotiations myself. Call me as soon as you have managed a rough translation of the alien’s language and have the translation machine working.”

  He descended the ladder clumsily, but he did not look at all ridiculous.

  Captain Rablyn moved from his position of frozen attention, and looked after the Strategic Captain with a snarl.

  * * * *

  Aboard the Ataturk Master Telepath Tewazi called a conference. He leaned back and shut his eyes as the telepaths about the ship answered the call and turned in with their reactions.

  [“Hooboy, do they like each other!”

  “Like a nest of rattlesnakes.”

  “He’s a tough old bird, that Bryllw.”

  “Let’s get this coordinated a little. Somebody start verbally repeating for Chang. This is his type of situation: he ought to be coordinator.” “Too bad he’s not a telepa
th...” “What a nutty culture.” “…I’ll do it.” “We must convince “Like a fruitcake, like our ancestors.” Bryllw that we are friendly, so he will

  “What?”

  leave us alone.”

  “Leave us alone? You weren’t tuned in to “Yes, Look up those nuts. No use trying to get them Authoritarian in the to change their minds.” handbook. They never change.” “But Gandhi...” “Not correct,” (Hahn) “Psy- “He’d like that. Bryllw would like chological reorientation. no resistance...encourage him, to Takes time, though.” attack.”

  “Strange attitude.” “Time! ... (obscenity) ...” “Get that Order-Chaos bit? Look up “We don’t have time Efficiency Expert. They never change. change him. Outsmart him.” “His officers dislike him, “How?” “Find out from him, Crew very favorable though... what would make him Maybe something there...like the leave us alone.” Bounty, only different.” “I couldn’t follow him at all.” “What Bounty ...” “(image, impressions)” “Strange at‑