The Lani People
by
J. F. Bone
Part 1 out of 5
The Lani People
by J. F. Bone
CHAPTER I
The boxed ad in the opportunities section of the Kardon Journal
of Allied Medical Sciences stood out like a cut diamond in a
handful of gravel. "Wanted," it read, "Veterinarian - for
residency in active livestock operation. Single recent graduate
preferred. Quarters and service furnished. Well-equipped
hospital. Five-year contract, renewal option, starting salary
15,000 cr./annum with periodic increases. State age, school,
marital status, and enclose recent tri-di with application.
Address Box V-9, this journal."
Jac Kennon read the box a second time. There must be a catch to
it. Nothing that paid a salary that large could possibly be on
the level. Fifteen thousand a year was top pay even on Beta, and
an offer like this for a new graduate was unheard of - unless
Kardon was in the middle of an inflation. But Kardon wasn't. The
planet's financial status was A-1. He knew. He'd checked that
immediately after landing. Whatever might be wrong with Kardon,
it wasn't her currency. The rate of exchange was 1.2-1 Betan.
A five-year contract - hmm - that would the seventy-five
thousand. Figure three thousand a year for living expenses, that
would leave sixty-plenty of capital to start a clinic. The banks
couldn't turn him down if he had that much cash collateral.
Kennon chuckled wryly. He'd better get the job before he started
spending the money he didn't have. He had 231 credits plus a few
halves, tenths, and hundredths, a diploma in veterinary medicine,
some textbooks, a few instruments, and a first-class spaceman's
ticket. By watching his expenses he had enough money to live here
for a month and if nothing came of his efforts to find a job on
this planet, there was always his spaceman's ticket and another
world.
Another world! There were over six thousand planets in the
Brotherhood of Man. At two months per planet, not figuring
transit time, it would take more than a thousand Galactic
Standard years to visit them all, and a man could look forward to
scarcely more than five hundred at best. The habitat of Man had
become too large. There wasn't time to explore every possibility.
But a man could have certain standards, and look until he found a
position that fitted. The trouble was - if the standards were too
high the jobs were too scarce. Despite the chronic shortage of
veterinarians throughout the Brotherhood, there was a peculiar
reluctance on the part of established practitioners to welcome
recent graduates. Most of the ads in the professional journals
read "State salary desired," which was nothing more than economic
blackmail - a bald-faced attempt to get as much for as little as
possible. Kennon grimaced wryly. He'd be damned if he'd sell his
training for six thousand a year. Slave labor, that's what it
was. There were a dozen ads like that in the Journal. Well, he'd
give them a trial, but he'd ask eight thousand and full GEA
benefits. Eight years of school and two more as an intern were
worth at least that.
He pulled the portable voicewrite to a comfortable position in
front of the view wall and began composing another of the series
of letters that had begun months ago in time and parsecs away in
space. His voice was a fluid counterpoint to the soft hum of the
machine.
And as he dictated, his eyes took in the vista through the view
wall. Albertsville was a nice town, too young for slums, too new
for overpopulation. The white buildings were the color of winter
butter in the warm yellow sunlight as the city drowsed in the
noonday heat. It nestled snugly in the center of a bowl-shaped
valley whose surrounding forest clad hills gave mute confirmation
to the fact that Kardon was still primitive, an unsettled world
that had not yet reached the explosive stage of population growth
that presaged maturity. But that was no disadvantage. In fact,
Kennon liked it. Living could be fun on a planet like this.
It was abysmally crude compared to Beta, but the Brotherhood had
opened Kardon less than five hundred years ago, and in such a
short time one couldn't expect all the comforts of civilization.
It required a high population density to supply them, and while
Kardon was integrated its population was scarcely more than two
hundred million. It would be some time yet before this world
would achieve a Class I status. However, a Class II planet had
some advantages. What it lacked in conveniences it made up in
opportunities and elbow room.
A normal Betan would have despised this world, but Kennon wasn't
normal, although to the casual eye he was a typical
representative of the Medico-Technological Civilization, long
legged, fair haired, and short bodied with the typical Betan
squint that left his eyes mere slits behind thick lashes and
heavy brows. The difference was internal rather than external.
Possibly it was due to the fact that his father was the commander
of a Shortliner and most of his formative years had been spent in
space. To Kennon, accustomed to the timeless horror of hyper
space, all planets were good, broad open places where a man could
breathe unfiltered air and look for miles across distances
unbroken by dually bulk heads and safety shields. On a planet
there were spaciousness and freedom and after the claustrophobic
confinement of a hyper ship any world was paradise. Kennon
sighed, finished his letters, and placed them in the mail chute.
Perhaps, this time, there would be a favorable reply.
CHAPTER II
Kennon was startled by the speed with which his letters were
answered. Accustomed to the slower pace of Beta he had expected a
week would elapse before the first reply, but within twenty-four
hours nine of his twelve inquiries were returned. Five expressed
the expected "Thank you but I feel that your asking salary is a
bit high in view of your lack of experience." Three were frankly
interested and requested a personal interview. And the last was
the letter, outstanding in its quietly ostentatious folder-the
reply from Box V-9.
"Would Dr. Kennon call at 10 A.M. tomorrow at the offices of
Outworld Enterprises Incorporated and bring this letter and
suitable identifications? Kennon chuckled. Would he? There was no
question about it. The address, 200 Central Avenue, was only a
few blocks away. In fact, he could see the building from his
window, a tall functional block of durilium and plastic, soaring
above the others on the street, the sunlight gleaming off its
clean square lines. He eyed it curiously, wondering what he would
find inside.
* * *
The receptionist took his I.D. and the letter, scanned them
briefly, and slipped them into one of the message tubes beside
her desk. "It will only be a moment, Doctor," she said
impersonally. "Would you care to sit down? '"
Thank you," he said. The minute, reflected, could easily be an
hour. But she was right. It was only a minute until the message
tube clicked and popped a capsule onto the girl's desk. She
opened it, and removed Kennon's I.D. and a small yellow plastic
rectangle. Her eyes widened at the sight of the plastic card.
"Here you are, Doctor. Take shaft number one. Slip the card into
the scanner slot and you'll be taken to the correct floor. The
offices you want will be at the end of the corridor to the left.
You'll find any other data you may need on the card in case you
get lost." She looked at him with a curious mixture of surprise
and respect as she handed him the contents of the message tube.
Kennon murmured an acknowledgment, took the card and his I.D.,
and entered the grav-shaft. There was the usual moment of
heaviness as the shaft whisked him upward and deposited him in
front of a thickly carpeted corridor.
Executive level, Kennon thought as he followed the receptionist's
directions. No wonder she had looked respectful. But what was he
doing here? The employment of a veterinarian wasn't important
enough to demand the attention of a senior executive. The
personnel section could handle the details of his application as
well as not. He shrugged. Perhaps veterinarians were more
important on Kardon. He didn't know a thing about this world's
customs.
He opened the unmarked door at the end of the corridor, entered a
small reception room, smiled uncertainly at the woman behind the
desk, and received an answering smile in return.
Come right in, Dr. Kennon. Mr. Alexander is waiting for you.
Alexander! The entrepreneur himself! Why? Numb with surprise
Kennon watched the woman open the intercom on her desk.
"Sir, Dr. Kennon is here," she said.
"Bring him in," a smooth voice replied from the speaker.
Alexander X. M. Alexander, President of Outsold Enterprises - a
lean, dark, wolfish man in his early sixties - eyed Kennon with a
flat predatory intentness that was oddly disquieting. His stare
combined the analytical inspection of the pathologist, the
probing curiosity of the psychiatrist, and the weighing appraisal
of the butcher. Kennon's thoughts about Alexander's youth
vanished that instant. Those eyes belonged to a leader on the
battlefield of galactic business.
Kennon felt the conditioned respect for authority surge through
him in a smothering wave. Grimly he fought it down, knowing it
was a sign of weakness that would do him no good in the interview
which lay ahead.
"So you're Kennon," Alexander said. His lingua franca was clean
and accentless. "I expected someone older."
"Frankly, sir, so did I," Kennon replied.
Alexander smiled, an oddly pleasant smile that transformed the
hard straight lines in his face into friendly curves. "Business,
Dr. Kennon, is not the sole property of age."
"Nor is a veterinary degree," Kennon replied.
"True. But one thinks of a Betan as someone ancient and sedate."
"Ours is an old planet -- but we still have new generations."
"A fact most of us outsiders find hard to believe," Alexander
said. "I picture your world as an ironclad society crystallized
by age and custom into something rigid and in flexible."
"You would be wrong to do so," Kennon said. "Even though we are
cultural introverts there is plenty of dynamism within our
society."
"How is it that you happen to be out here on the edge of
civilization?"
"I never said I was like my society," Kennon grinned. "Actually I
suppose I'm one of the proverbial bad apples."
"There's more to it than that," Alexander said. "Your early years
probably influenced you."
Kennon looked sharply at the entrepreneur. How much did the man
really know about him? "I suppose so," he said indifferently."
Alexander looked pleased. "But even with your childhood
experiences there must be an atavistic streak in you - a
throwback to your adventurous Earth forebears who settled your
world?"
Kennon shrugged. "Perhaps you're right. I really don't know.
Actually, I've never thought about it. It merely seemed to me
that an undeveloped world offered more opportunity."
"It does," Alexander said. "But it also offers more work. If
you're figuring that you can get along on the minimum physical
effort required on the Central Worlds, you have a shock coming."
"I'm not that innocent," Kennon said. "But I am not so stupid
that I can't apply modifications of Betan techniques to worlds as
new as this."
Alexander chuckled. "I like you," he said. suddenly. "Here read
this and see if you'd care to work for me." He picked a contract
form from one of the piles of paper on his desk and handed it to
Kennon. "This is one of our standard work contracts. Take it back
to your hotel and check it over. I'll expect to see you at this
time tomorrow."
"Why waste time?" Kennon said. "The rapid-reading technique
originated on Beta. I can tell you in fifteen minutes."
"Hmm. Certainly. Read it here if you wish. I like to get things
settled - the sooner the better. Sit down, young man and read.
You can rouse me when you're finished." He turned his attention
to the papers on his desk and within seconds was completely
oblivious of Kennon, his face set in the rapt trancelike
expression of a trained rapid reader.
Kennon watched for a moment as sheets of paper passed through
Alexander's hands to be added to the pile at the opposite end of
the desk. The man would do better, he thought, if he would have
his staff transcribe the papers to microfilm that could be read
through an interval-timed scanner. He might suggest that later.
As for now, he shrugged and seated himself in the chair beside
the desk. The quiet was broken only by the rustle of paper as the
two rapt-faced men turned page after page with mechanical
regularity.
Finally Kennon turned the last page, paused, blinked, and
performed the necessary mental gymnastics to orient his time
sense. Alexander, he noticed, was still engrossed, sunk in his
autohypnotic trance. Kennon waited until he had finished the
legal folder which he was reading and then gently intruded upon
Alexander's concentration.
Alexander looked up blankly and then went through the same mental
gyrations Kennon had performed a few minutes before. His eyes
focused and became hard and alert.
"Well?" he asked. "What do you think of it?"
"I think it's the damnedest, trickiest, most unilateral piece of
legalistics I've ever seen," Kennon said bluntly. "If that's the
best you can offer, I wouldn't touch the job with a pair of
forceps."
Alexander smiled. "I see you read the fine print," he said. There
was quiet amusement in his voice. "So you don't like the
contract?"
"No sensible man would. I'm damned if I'll sign commitment papers
just to get a job. No wonder you're having trouble getting
professional help. If your contracts are all like that it's' a
wonder anyone works for you."
"We have no complaints from our employees," Alexander said
stiffly.
"How could you? If they signed that contract you'd have a perfect
right to muzzle them."
"There are other applicants for this post," Alexander said.
"Then get one of them. I wouldn't be interested."
"A spaceman's ticket is a good thing to have," Alexander said
idly. "It's a useful ace in the hole. Besides, you have had three
other job offers - all of which are good even though they don't
pay fifteen Ems a year."
Kennon did a quick double take. Alexander's investigative staff
was better than good. It was uncanny.
"But seriously, Dr. Kennon, I am pleased that you do not like
that contract. Frankly, I wouldn't consider employing you if you
did."
"Sir?"
"That contract is a screen. It weeds out the careless, the fools,
and the unfit in one operation. A man who would sign a thing like
that has no place in my organization." Alexander chuckled at
Kennon's blank expression. "I see you have had no experience with
screening contracts."
"I haven't," Kennon admitted. "On Beta the tests are formal. The
Medico-Psych Division supervises them."
"Different worlds, different methods," Alexander observed. "But
they're all directed toward the same goal. Here we aren't so
civilized. We depend more on personal judgment." He took another
contract from one of the drawers of his desk. "Take a look at
this. I think you'll be more satisfied."
"If you don't mind, I'll read it now," Kennon said.
Alexander nodded.
* * *
"It's fair enough," Kennon said, "except for Article Twelve."
"The personal privilege section?
"Yes."
"Well, that's the contract. You can take it or leave it."
"I'll leave it," Kennon said. "Thank you for your time." He rose
to his feet, smiled at Alexander, and turned to the door. "Don't
bother to call your receptionist," he said. "I can find my way
out."
"Just a minute, Doctor," Alexander said. He was standing behind
the desk, holding out his hand.
"Another test?" Kennon inquired.
Alexander nodded. "The critical one," he said. "Do you want the
job?"
"Of course."
"Without knowing more about it?"
"The contract is adequate. It defines my duties."
"And you think you can handle them?"
"I know I can."
"I notice," Alexander observed, "that you didn't object to other
provisions."
"No, sir. They're pretty rigid, but for the salary you are paying
I figure you should have some rights. Certainly you have the
right to protect your interests. But that Article Twelve is a
direct violation of everything a human being should hold sacred
besides being a violation of the Peeper Laws. I'd never sign a
contract that didn't carry a full Peeper rider."
"That's quite a bit."
"That's the minimum," Kennon corrected. "Naturally, I won't
object to mnemonic erasure of matters pertaining to your business
once my contract's completed and I leave your employment. But
until then there will be no conditioning, no erasures, no taps,
no snoopers, and no checkups other than the regular periodic
psychans. I'll consult with you on vacation time and will arrange
it to suit your convenience. I'll even agree to emergency recall,
but that's the limit." Kennon's voice was flat.
"You realize I'm agreeing to give you a great deal of personal
liberty," Alexander said. "How can I protect myself?"
"I'll sign a contingency rider," Kennon said, "if you will
specify precisely what security matters I am not to reveal."
"I accept," Alexander said. "Consider yourself hired." He touched
a button on his desk. "Prepare a standard 2-A contract for Dr.
Jac Kennon's signature. And attach two riders, a full P-P-yes, no
exceptions - and a security-leak contingency, Form 287-C. Yes -
that's right - that one. And strike out all provisions of Article
Twelve which conflict with the Peeper Laws. Yes. Now - and finish
it as soon as you can." He touched another button. "Well, that's
that," he said. "I hope you'll enjoy being a member of our
group."
"I think I shall," Kennon said. "You know, sir, I would have
waived part of that last demand if you had cared to argue."
"I know it," Alexander said. "But what concessions I could have
wrung from you would be relatively unimportant beside the fact
that you would be unhappy about them later. What little I could
have won here, I'd lose elsewhere. And since I want you, I'd
prefer to have you satisfied."
"I see," Kennon said. Actually he didn't see at all. He looked
curiously at the entrepreneur. Alexander couldn't be as easy as
he seemed. Objectivity and dispassionate weighing and balancing
were nice traits and very helpful ones, but in the bear pit of
galactic business they wouldn't keep their owner alive for five
minutes. The interworld trade sharks would have skinned him long
ago and divided the stripped carcass of his company between them.
But Outworld was a "respected" company. The exchange reports said
so - which made Alexander a different breed of cat entirely.
Still, his surface was perfect - polished and impenetrable as a
duralloy turret on one of the latest Brotherhood battleships.
Kennon regretted he wasn't a sensitive. It would be nice to know
what Alexander really was.
"Tell me, sir," Kennon asked. "What are the real reasons that
make you think I'm the man you want?"
"And you're the young man who's so insistent on a personal
privacy rider," Alexander chuckled. "However, there's no harm
telling you. There are several reasons.
"You're from a culture whose name is a byword for moral
integrity. That makes you a good risk so far as your ethics are
concerned. In addition you're the product of one of the finest
educational systems in the galaxy-and you have proven your
intelligence to my satisfaction. You also showed me that you
weren't a spineless 'yes man.' And finally, you have a spirit of
adventure. Not one in a million of your people would do what you
have done. What more could an entrepreneur ask of a prospective
employee?"
Kennon sighed and gave up. Alexander wasn't going to reveal a
thing.
"All I hope," Alexander continued affably, "is that you'll find
Outworld Enterprises as attractive as did your predecessor Dr.
Williamson. He was with us until he died last month - better than
a hundred years."
"Died rather young, didn't he?"
"Not exactly, he was nearly four hundred when he joined us. My
grandfather was essentially conservative. He liked older men, and
Old Doc was one of his choices - a good one, too. He was worth
every credit we paid him."
"I'll try to do as well," Kennon said, "but I'd like to warn you
that I have no intention of staying as long as he did. I want to
build a clinic and I figure sixty thousand is about enough to get
started."
"When will you veterinarians ever learn to be organization men?"
Alexander asked. "You're as independent as tomcats."
Kennon grinned. "It's a breed characteristic, I guess."
Alexander shrugged. "Perhaps you'll change your mind after you've
worked for us."
"Possibly, but I doubt it."
"Tell me that five years from now," Alexander said - "Ah - here
are the contracts." He smiled at the trim secretary who entered
the room carrying a stack of papers.
"The riders are as you asked, sir," the girl said.
"Good. Now, Doctor, if you please."
"You don't mind if I check them?" Kennon asked.
"Not at all. And when you're through, just leave them on the desk
- except for your copy, of course." Alexander scrawled his
signature on the bottom of each contract. "Don't disturb me. I'll
be in contact with you. Leave your whereabouts with your hotel."
He turned to the papers in front of him, and then looked up for
the last time. "Just one more thing," he said. "You impress me as
a cautious man. It would be just as well if you carried your
caution with you when you leave this room."
Kennon nodded, and Alexander turned back to his work.
CHAPTER III
"I'd never have guessed yesterday that I'd be here today," Kennon
said as he looked down at the yellow waters of the Xantline Sea
flashing to the rear of the airboat at a steady thousand
kilometers per hour as they sped westward in the middle traffic
level. The water, some ten thousand meters below, had been
completely empty for hours as the craft hurtled through the
equatorial air.
"We have to move fast to stay ahead of our ulcers," Alexander
said with a wry smile. "Besides, I wanted to get away from the
Albertsville offices for awhile."
"Three hours' notice," Kennon said. "That's almost too fast."
"You had nothing to keep you in the city, and neither did I - at
least nothing important. There are plenty of females where we are
going and I need you on Flora - not in Albertsville. Besides I
can get you there faster than if you waited for a company
transport."
"Judging from those empty sea lanes below, Flora must be an
out-of-the-way place," Kennon said.
"It is. It's out of the trade lanes. Most of the commercial
traffic is in the southern hemisphere. The northern hemisphere is
practically all water. Except for Flora and the Otpens there
isn't a land area for nearly three thousand kilometers in any
direction, and since the company owns Flora and the surrounding
island groups there's no reason for shipping to come there. We
have our own supply vessels, a Discovery Charter, and a desire
for privacy. - Ah! It won't be long now. There's the Otpens!"
Alexander pointed at a smudge on the horizon that quickly
resolved into an irregular chain of tiny islets that slipped
below them. Kennon got a glimpse of gray concrete on one of the
larger islands, a smudge of green trees, and white beaches
against which the yellow waters dashed in smothers of foam.
"Rugged-looking place," be murmured.
"Most of them are deserted. Two support search and warning
stations and automatic interceptors to protect our property.
Look! - there's Flora." Alexander gestured at the land mass that
appeared below.
Flora was a great green oval two hundred kilometers long and
about a hundred wide.
"Pretty, isn't it?" Alexander said as they sped over the low
range of hills and the single gaunt volcano filling the eastward
end of the island and swept over a broad green valley dotted with
fields and orchards interspersed at intervals by red-roofed
structures whose purpose was obvious.
"Our farms," Alexander said redundantly. The airboat crossed a
fair-sized river. "That's the Styx," Alexander said. "Grandfather
named it. He was a classicist in his way - spent a lot of his
time reading books most people never heard of. Things like the
Iliad and Gone with the Wind. The mountains he called the
Apennines, and that volcano's Mount Olympus. The marshland to the
north is called the Pontine Marshes - our main road is the Camino
Real." Alexander grinned. "There's a lot of Earth on Flora.
You'll find it in every name. Grandfather was an Earthman and he
used to get nostalgic for the homeworld. Well - there's
Alexandria coming up. We've just about reached the end of the
line."
Kennon stared down at the huge gray-green citadel resting on a
small hill in the center of an open plain. It was a Class II
Fortalice built on the efficient star-shaped plan of half a
millennium ago - an ugly spiky pile of durilium, squat and
massive with defensive shields and weapons which could still
withstand hours of assault by the most modern forces.
"Why did he build a thing like that?" Kennon asked.
"Alexandria? - well, we had trouble with the natives when we
first came, and Grandfather had a synthesizer and tapes for a
Fortalice in his ship. So he built it. It serves the dual purpose
of base and house. It's mostly house now, but it's still capable
of being defended."
"And those outbuildings?"
"They're part of your job."
The airboat braked sharply and settled with a smooth, sickeningly
swift rush that left Kennon gasping - feeling that his stomach
was still floating above him in the middle level. He never had
become accustomed to an arbutus landing characteristics. Spacers
were slower and steadier. The ship landed gently on a pitted
concrete slab near the massive radiation shields of the
barricaded entranceway to the fortress. Projectors in polished
dually turrets swivelled to point their ugly noses at them. It
gave Kennon a queasy feeling. He never liked to trust his future
to automatic machinery. If the analyzers failed to decode the
ship's I.D. properly, Kennon, Alexander, the ship, and a fair
slice of surrounding territory would become an incandescent mass
of dissociated atoms.
"Grandfather was a good builder," Alexander, said proudly. "Those
projectors have been mounted nearly four hundred years and
they're still as good as the day they were installed."
"I can see that," Kennon said uncomfortably. "You ought to
dismantle them. They're enough to give a man the weebies."
Alexander chuckled. "Oh - they're safe. The firing mechanism's
safetied. But we keep them in operating condition. You never can
tell when they'll come in handy."
"I knew Kardon was primitive, but I didn't think it was that bad.
What's the trouble?"
"None - right now," Alexander said obliquely, "and since we've
shown we can handle ourselves there probably won't be any more."
"You must raise some pretty valuable stock if the competition
tried to rustle them in the face of that armament."
"We do." Alexander said. "Now if you'll follow me" - the
entrepreneur opened the cabin door letting in a blast of heat and
a flood of yellow sunlight.
"Great Arthur Fleming!" Kennon exploded. "This place is a
furnace!"
"It's hot out here on the strip," Alexander admitted, "but its
cool enough inside. Besides, you'll get used to this quickly
enough - and the nights are wonderful. The evening rains cool
things off. Well - come along." He began walking toward the
arched entrance to the great building some hundred meters away.
Kennon followed looking around curiously. So this was to be his
home for the next five years? It didn't look particularly
inviting. There was a forbidding air about the place that was in
stark contrast to its pleasant surroundings.
They were only a few meters from the archway when a stir of
movement came from its shadow - the first life Kennon had seen
since they descended from the ship. In this furnace heat even the
air was quiet. Two women came out of the darkness, moving with
quiet graceful steps across the blistering hot concrete. They
were naked except for a loincloth, halter, and sandals and so
nearly identical in form and feature that Kennon took them to be
twins. Their skins were burned a deep brown that glistened in the
yellow sun light.
Kennon shrugged. It was none of his business how his employer ran
his household or what his servants wore or didn't wear. Santos
was a planet of nudists, and certainly this hot sun was fully as
brilliant as the one which warmed that tropical planet In fact,
he could see some virtue in wearing as little as possible.
Already he was perspiring.
The two women walked past them toward the airboat. Kennon turned
to look at them and noticed with surprise that they weren't
human. The long tails curled below their spinal bases were
adequate denials of human ancestry.
"Humanoids!" he gasped. "For a moment I thought-"
"Gave you a start-eh?" Alexander chuckled. "It always does when a
stranger sees a Lani for the first time. Well - now you've seen
some of the livestock what do you think of them?"
"I think you should have hired a medic."
Alexander shook his head. "No - it wouldn't be reason able or
legal. You're the man for the job."
"But I've no experience with humanoid types. We didn't cover that
phase in our studies - and from their appearance they'd qualify
as humans anywhere if it weren't for those tails!"
"They're far more similar than you think," Alexander said. "It
just goes to show what parallel evolution can do. But there are
differences."
"I never knew that there was indigenous humanoid life on Kardon,"
Kennon continued. "The manual says nothing about it."
"Naturally. They're indigenous only to this area."
"That's impossible. Species as highly organized as that simply
don't originate on isolated islands."
"This was a subcontinent once," Alexander said. "Most of it has
been inundated. Less than a quarter of a million years ago there
was over a hundred times the land area in this region than exists
today. Then the ocean rose. Now all that's left is the mid
continent plateau and a few mountain tops. You noted, I suppose,
that this is mature topography except for that range of hills to
the east. The whole land area at the time of flooding was
virtually a peneplain. A rise of a few hundred feet in the ocean
level was all that was needed to drown most of the land."
"I see. Yes, it's possible that life could have developed here
under those conditions. A peneplain topography argues permanence
for hundreds of millions of years."
"You have studied geology?" Alexander asked curiously. "Only as
part of my cultural base," Kennon said. "Merely a casual
acquaintance."
"We think the Lani were survivors of that catastrophe - and with
their primitive culture they were unable to reach the other land
masses," Alexander shrugged. "At any rate they never established
themselves anywhere else."
"How did you happen to come here?"
"I was born here," Alexander said. "My grandfather discovered
this world better than four hundred years ago. He picked this
area because it all could be comfortably included in Discovery
Rights. It wasn't until years afterward that he realized the
ecological peculiarities of this region."
"He certainly capitalized on them."
"There was plenty of opportunity. The plants and animals here are
different from others in this world. Like Australia in reverse."
Kennon looked blank, and Alexander chuckled. "Australia was a
subcontinent on Earth," he explained. "Its ecology, however, was
exceedingly primitive when compared with the rest of the planet.
Flora's on the contrary, was - and is - exceedingly advanced when
compared with other native life forms on Kardon."
"Your grandfather stumbled on a real bonanza," Kennon said.
"For which I'm grateful," Alexander grinned. "It's made me the
biggest operator in this sector of the galaxy. For practical
purposes I own an independent nation. There's about a thousand
humans here, and nearly six thousand Lani. We're increasing the
Lani now, since we found they have commercial possibilities. Up
to thirty years ago we merely used them for labor."
Kennon didn't speculate on what Alexander meant. He knew. For
practical purposes, his employer was a slave trader - or would
have been if the natives were human. As it was, the analogy was
so close that it wasn't funny.
They entered the fortress, passed through a decontamination
chamber that would have done credit to an exploration ship, and
emerged dressed in tunics and sandals that were far more
appropriate and comfortable in this tropical climate.
"That's one of Old Doc's ideas," Alexander said, gesturing at the
door from which they had emerged. "He was a hound for sanitation
and he infected us with the habit." He turned and led the way
down an arched corridor that opened into a huge circular room
studded with iris doors.
Kennon sucked his breath in with a low gasp of amazement. The
room was a gem of exquisite beauty. The parquet floor was inlaid
with rare hardwoods from a hundred different worlds. Parthian
marble veneer covered with lacy Van tapestries from Santos formed
the walls. Delicate ceramics, sculpture, and bronzes reflected
the art of a score of different civilizations. A circular pool,
festooned with lacelike Halsite ferns, stood in the center of the
room, surrounding a polished black granite pedestal on which
stood an exquisite bronze of four Lani females industriously and
eternally pouring golden water from vases held in their shapely
hands. "Beautiful," Kennon said softly.
"We like it," Alexander said.
"We?"
"Oh yes - I forgot to tell you about the Family," Alexander said
grimly. "I run Outworld, and own fifty per cent of it. The Family
owns the other fifty. There are eight of them - the finest
collection of parasites in the entire galaxy. At the moment they
can't block me since I also control my cousin Douglas's shares.
But when Douglas comes of age they will be troublesome. Therefore
I defer to them. I don't want to build a united opposition.
Usually I can get one or more of them to vote with me on critical
deals, but I always have to pay for their support." Alexander's
voice was bitter as he touched the dilate button on the iris door
beside him. "You'll have to meet them tonight. There's five of
them here now."
"That isn't in the contract," Kennon said. He was appalled at
Alexander. Civilized people didn't speak of others that way, even
to intimates.
"It can't be helped. You must meet them. It's part of the job."
Alexander's voice was grim. "Mother, Cousin Anne, Douglas, and
Eloise like to play lord of the manor. Cousin Harold doesn't care
- for which you should be grateful."
The door dilated, and Alexander ushered Kennon into the room. The
Lani sitting on the couch opposite the door leaped to her feet,
her mouth opening in an 0 of surprise. Her soft snow-white hair,
creamy skin, and bright china blue eyes were a startling contrast
to her black loincloth and halter. Kennon stared appreciatively.
Her effect on Alexander, however, was entirely different. His
face darkened. "You!" he snapped. "What are you doing here?"
"Serving, sir," the Lani said.
"On whose authority?"
"Man Douglas, sir."
Alexander groaned. "You see," he said, turning to Kennon. "We
need someone here with a little sense. Like I was telling you,
the Family'd" - he stopped abruptly and turned back to the Lani.
"Your name and pedigree," he demanded.
"Silver Dawn, sir - out of White Magic - platinum experimental
type - strain four."
"I thought so. How long have you been inhouse?"
"Almost a month, sir."
"You're terminated. Report to Goldie and tell her that Man
Alexander wants you sent back to your group."
The Lani's eyes widened. "Man Alexander! - You?"
Alexander nodded.
"Gosh!" she breathed. "The big boss!"
"Get moving," Alexander snapped, "and tell Goldie to report to me
in my quarters."
"Yes, sir, right away, sir!" The Lath ran, disappearing through
the door they had entered with a flash of shapely white limbs.
"That Douglas!" Alexander growled. "Leave that young fool alone
here for six months and he'd disrupt the entire operation. The
nerve of that young pup - requisitioning an experimental type for
household labor. Just what does he think he's doing?"
The question obviously didn't demand a reply, so Kennon kept
discreetly silent as Alexander crossed the room to the two doors
flanking the couch on which the Lani had sat. He opened the
left-hand one revealing a modern grav-shaft that carried them
swiftly to the uppermost level. They walked down a short corridor
and stopped before another door. It opened into a suite furnished
with stark functional simplicity. It fitted the entrepreneur's
outward personality so exactly that Kennon had no doubt that this
was Alexander's quarters.
"Sit down, Kennon. Relax while you can," Alexander said as he
dropped into a chair and crossed his sandaled feet.
"I'm sure you have many questions, but they can wait."
You might as well get some rest. You'll have little enough later.
The Family will probably put you through the meat grinder, but
remember that they don't control this business. You're my man."
Kennon had hardly seated himself in another chair when the door
opened and a plump pink-skinned Lani entered. She was
considerably older than the silver-haired one he had seen
earlier, and her round face was smiling.
"Ah, Goldie," Alexander said. "I understand Man Douglas has been
giving you quite a time."
"It's high time you came back, sir," she said. "Since Old Doc
died, Man Douglas has been impossible. He's been culling the
staff and replacing them with empty-headed fillies whose only
claim to usefulness is that they can fill out a halter. Pretty
soon this place will be a pigsty."
"I'll take care of that," Alexander promised. "Now I'd like you
to meet Old Doc's replacement. This is Dr. Kennon, our new
veterinarian."
"Pleased, I'm sure," Goldie said. "You look like a nice man."
"He is," Alexander said, "but he's just as hard as Old Doc - and
he'll have the same powers. Goldie's the head housekeeper,"
Alexander added. "She's an expert, and you'd do well to take her
advice on assignments."
Kennon nodded.
"Have a maid bring us a light meal and something to drink,"
Alexander said. "Have a couple of porters take Dr. Kennon's
things to Old Doc's house. Find Man Douglas and tell him I want
to see him at once. Tell the Family that I've arrived and will
see them in the Main Lounge at eight tonight. Tell Blalok I'll be
seeing him at nine. That's all."
"Yes, sir," Goldie said and left the room, her tail curling
buoyantly.
"A good Lani," Alexander commented. "One of the best. Loyal,
trustworthy, intelligent. She's been running Alexandria for the
past ten years, and should be good for at least ten more."
"Ten? - how old is she?"
"Thirty."
"Thirty - years?"
Alexander nodded.
"Good Lord Lister! I'd have guessed her at least three hundred!"
"Wrong life scale. Lani only live about one tenth as long as we
do. They're mature at twelve and dead at fifty."
Alexander sighed. "That's another difference. Even without
agerone we'd live to be a hundred."
"Have you tried gerontological injections?"
"Once. They produced death in about two days. Killed five Lani
with them." Alexander's face darkened at an unpleasant memory.
"So we don't try any more," he said. "There are too many
differences." He stretched. "I'd tell you more about them but
it'll be better to hear it from Evald Blalok. He's our
superintendent. Steve Jordan can tell you a lot, too. He runs the
Lani Division. But right now let's wait for Cousin Douglas. The
pup will take his time about coming - but he'll do it in the end.
He's afraid not to."
"I'd rather not," Kennon said. "It's poor manners to be injected
into a family affair - especially when I'm just one of the
employees."
"You're not just one of the employees. You are the Station
Veterinarian, and as such you hold an authority second only to
Blalok and myself. You and Blalok are my hands, ears, and eyes on
Flora. You are responsible to me - and to me alone. While I defer
at times to the desires of the Family, I do not have to. I run
Outworld Enterprises and all the extensions of that organization.
I possess control - and the Family knows it. My men are
respected and furthermore they know everything that goes on." He
smiled icily. "In a way it's quite a healthy situation. It keeps
my relatives under control. Somehow they dislike being
disciplined before outsiders. Now think no more about it."
Alexander stood up and walked over to one of the windows opening
onto the broad roof gardens, and stood looking at the
sun-drenched greenery.
"Odd, isn't it," Alexander said, "how beautiful nature is and how
simple things are in a state of nature. It's only when man
interjects himself onto a scene that things get complicated. Take
Flora for instance. Before Grandfather came here, it must have
been a pleasant place with the simple natives happy in their
paradise. But that's all changed now. We have taken over - and
they, like other lesser creatures on other worlds, have been bent
to our will and uses. I could pity them, but being human I cannot
afford that luxury."
Kennon understood. He, too, had felt that sensation, that odd
tightening of the throat when he first saw a Varl on Santos. The
Varl had been the dominant life form there until men had come.
Now they were just another animal added to humanity's growing
list of pets and livestock. The little Varl with their
soft-furred bodies and clever six-fingered hands made excellent
pets and precision workmen. The products of those clever hands,
the tiny instruments, the delicate microminiaturized control
circuits, the incredibly fine lacework and tapestries, formed the
bulk of Santos' interstellar trade.
He had owned a Varl once and had delighted in its almost human
intelligence. But the Varl weren't human and there lay their
tragedy. Two thousand years of human domination had left them
completely dependent on their conquerors. They were merely
intelligent animals - and that was all they would ever be until
the human race changed its cultural pattern or was overthrown.
The one alternative was as unlikely as the other. Humanity had
met some fierce competitors, but none with its explosive
acquisitive nature, and none with its drive to conquer, colonize,
and rule. And probably it never would.
The little Varl were one race among hundreds that had fallen
before the fierceness and the greed of men. But unlike most
others, the Varl were not combative. Therefore they had survived.
Yet had it been necessary to reduce them to slavery? They would
never be a threat. Not only were they essentially gentle and
noncombative, but their delicate bodies could not stand the
strains of spaceflight. They were trapped on their world. Why
should they be forced into so subordinate a role? - Why was
humanity so jealous of its dominance that no other species could
exist except by sufferance? Why after five thousand years of
exploration, invasion, and colonization did the human race still
consider the galaxy as its oyster, and themselves uniquely
qualified to hold the knife? He hadn't thought this way since he
had given the Varl to his girl friend of the moment, and had
blasted off for Beta. Now the questions returned to haunt him. As
a Betan, the haunting was even more acute, since Beta had a
related problem that was already troublesome and would become
more acute as the years passed.
He shrugged and laid the thought aside as a slim, dark-haired
Lani entered pushing a service cart ahead of her. The two men ate
silently, each busy with his own thoughts. And behind the view
wall of Alexander's apartment Kardon's brilliant yellow sun sank
slowly toward the horizon, filling the sky with flaming colors of
red and gold, rimmed by the blues and purples of approaching
night. The sunset was gaudy and blatant, Kennon thought with mild
distaste, unlike the restful day-end displays of his homeworld.
CHAPTER IV
Douglas Alexander was a puffy-faced youngster with small
intolerant eyes set in folds of fat above a button nose and a
loose-lipped sensual mouth. There was an odd expression of
defiance overlaid with fear on his pudgy features. Looking at
him, Kennon was reminded of a frightened dog, ready either to
bite or cower.
But it wasn't Douglas who held his eye. It was the two Lani who
followed him into the room. Every line of their bodies was
perfection that spoke volumes about generations of breeding for
physical elegance. They moved with a co-ordinated grace that made
Douglas look even more clumsy by contrast. And they were
identical, twin cream-and-gold works of art. They were completely
nude - and Kennon for the first time in his life fully
appreciated the beauty of an unclad female. To cover them would
be sacrilege, and ornaments would only detract from their
exquisite perfection.
Kennon knew that he was staring like an idiot. Alexander's amused
smile told him that much. With an effort he composed his startled
features.
The pair looked at him with soft violet eyes - and it was as
though some psychic bathhouse attendant had poured ice water down
his spine. For he had seen that look before, that liquid
introspective look in the velvet eyes of cattle. He shivered. For
a moment he had been thinking of them as human. And somehow the
lack of that indefinable some thing called humanity robbed them
of much of their glamour. They were still beautiful, but their
beauty had become impersonal.
"Don't take these as representative of the Lani," Alexander said
suddenly. "They're a special case, a very special case." He
glared at his cousin. "Damn your impudence," he said without
beat. "I sent for you - not your toys. Send them away."
Douglas sulkily thrust out his lower lip. "You can't talk to me
like that, Cousin Alex," he began. "I'm just a"
"You head me, Douglas. Out!" Alexander's voice didn't rise but it
cut like a whip.
"Oh, very well," Douglas said. "I can't fight you - yet." He
turned to the humanoids. "You heard the Boss-man. Go home."
The two nodded in unison and departed quickly. Somehow Kennon got
the impression that they were happy to leave.
"Just wait," Douglas said. "You can't boss me forever. Just wait.
I'll reach my majority in five years. I can vote my shares then -
and then I'll fix you. You won't be so high and mighty then, Mr.
Big. I'll throw in with the rest of the Family. They don't like
you too much."
"Don't hold your breath waiting for the Family to help you,"
Alexander said. "They wouldn't have anyone else but me handle the
finances. They love money too much. And until you get your
inheritance remember one thing - I'm master here."
"I know it," Douglas said, and then curiously - "Who's the
oddball?" He gestured at Kennon with a pudgy thumb.
"Our new veterinarian, Dr. Kennon."
"Oh - great! Now you tell me!"
"There's nothing like making a good first impression," Alexander
said with ironic emphasis. "I hope he cuts you off from the Lani.
He'll have the authority to do it, since he's taking Old Doc's
place."
"He can't. I'm an owner. I own-"
"You own nothing. You're a minor. And under the terms of
Grandfather's will, you'll own nothing except an allowance until
you reach legal age. And that brings me to the reason I brought
you here. Just when did you gain the right to reorganize the
household staff? Just when did you get the power to interfere
with the experimental program?"
Douglas flushed dull red and bit his lip. "Do we have to go into
this in front of strangers?"
"Kennon's my agent," Alexander said coldly, "and he might as well
learn about you and the others from the start."
"Well - what do you want him to do - watch me crawl?" Douglas
asked bitterly. "You'll make me do it. You always do. Do you want
me to beg, to say I was wrong, to promise I won't do it again?"
"You've done that already," Alexander said. "Several times. You
need a lesson. I won't have you meddling with valuable animals."
"And what are you going to do about it?"
"Put you where you can do no more damage. As of tomorrow you'll
go to Otpen One."
Douglas paled. His lips quivered, and his eyes flicked uneasily
as he watched Alexander's granite face. "You don't mean that," he
said finally. "You're joking."
"I never joke about business."
"But you can't do that! I'll tell the Family. They won't let
you."
"I already have their consent," Alexander said. "I obtained it
after your last escapade. You'll be happy out there. You can play
tin god all you like. Master of life and death on a two-acre
island. No one will mind. You can also go to work. No one will
mind that, either. And Mullins won't mind as long as you leave
the troops alone. Now get out of here and get packed. You're
leaving tomorrow morning."
"But cousin Alex---"
"Move! I'm tired of the sight of you!" Alexander said.
Douglas turned and shambled out of the room. His ego was
thoroughly deflated and he seemed more frightened than before.
Obviously the Otpens weren't the pleasantest place in this world.
"They're a military post," Alexander said. "And Commander Mullins
doesn't like Douglas. Can't say that I blame him. Douglas is a
thoroughly unpleasant specimen, and incidentally quite typical of
the rest of the Family." Alexander sighed and spread his hands in
a gesture that combined disgust and resignation. "Sometimes I
wonder why I have been cursed with my relatives."
Kennon nodded. The implications behind the empty eyes of
Douglas's Lani sickened him. There were several ways to produce
that expression, all of them unpleasant. Hypnoconditioning, the
Quiet Treatment, brainburning, transorbital leukotomy, lobectomy
- -all of the products of that diseased period of humanity's
thinking when men tampered with the brains of other men in an
effort to cure psychic states. Psychiatry had passed that period,
at least on the civilized worlds, where even animal experiments
were frowned upon as unnecessary cruelty.
"You saw those two Lani," Alexander said. "Grandfather had them
made that way as a birthday present for Douglas. He was getting
senile. He died a year later. You'd think a man would be ashamed
to keep things like that around -- but not Douglas. He likes
them." Alexander's voice was tinged with contempt. "He knows they
disgust me -- so he parades them in. I could strangle that pup
sometimes!"
"I wondered about it. I wouldn't like to work for a man who
permitted such things."
"That was done before I took over. For the past three years there
have been no dockings, no mutilations. I can't see treating a
helpless animal like that."
"I feel better about it," Kennon said. "I didn't think you were
that sort."
"Understand me," Alexander said. "I'm always opposed to senseless
cruelty and waste -- particularly when it's dangerous. Docked
Lani are the height of stupidity. Just because someone wants a
pet that is an exact duplicate of a human being is no reason to
risk a court action. Those Lani, and a few others whose tails
have been docked, could be a legal bombshell if they ever left
Flora."
Kennon was jolted. He had been thinking of mental mutilation and
Alexander had been talking physical. Naturally they would be
dangerous property. Anyone attempting to sell a docked Lani would
probably be thrown in Detention and charged with slave trading.
"Did you ever figure the cost of taking a legal action through
our court system?" Alexander asked. "Even the small ones set you
back four or five thousand, and a first-class action like a
Humanity Trial could cost over a million. Grandfather found that
out. Sure, there are differences between Lani and humans, but a
smart lawyer can make them seem trivial until the final test and
that would drag on for nearly two years until all the
requirements were satisfied -- and by that time the unfavorable
publicity would drop sales to zero. The Family would be on my
neck for lost dividends, and I'd lose much of the control I hold
over them.
"Sure, it's possible that prehensile tails could be produced by
mutation, but so far as we know it hasn't happened in human
history. As a result, the tail serves as a trade-mark - something
that can be easily recognized by anyone. So we sell them intact."
Alexander crossed his legs and settled back in his chair. "Shocks
you, doesn't it?"
Kennon nodded. "Yes," he admitted. "It does."
"I know. You can't help it. Most of our new employees think the
Lani are human - at first. They learn better, but adjustment is
always a strain. They keep confusing external appearances with
the true article. But remember this -- Lani are not human.
They're animals. And on this island they're treated as what they
are -- no more, no less. They are a part of our economics and are
bred, fed, and managed according to sound livestock principles.
Despite some of the things you may see here in Alexandria, don't
forget that. You are a veterinarian. Your job is to handle
disease problems in animals. Lani are animals. Therefore you will
be doing your job. I was disappointed in your reaction when you
first saw them, but I suppose it was natural. At any rate this
should clear the air."
"It does -- intellectually," Kennon admitted. "But the physical
resemblance is so close that it is difficult to accept."
Alexander smiled. "Don't worry. You'll accept it in time. Now I
think it's time that you met the Family."
CHAPTER V
The main salon was crowded. The huge room, glittering with
mirrors and crystal, floored with thick carpets, and hung with
rich drapes, had something of the appearance of a Sarkian harem.
Although there were only five of the Alexander family present,
there were at least twenty Lani whose costumes ranged from the
black G string and halter of the household staff to the utter
nudity of Douglas's playthings. They were all female, and Kennon
wondered for a moment what a male was like.
Besides Alexander, there were two men and three women: Douglas,
still with his sulky expression, an older man in his late
nineties who looked like Douglas's eider brother, two mature
women who could be any age from fifty to three hundred, and a
girl. She might have been thirty -- perhaps younger, perhaps
older, a lean feminine edition of Alexander, with the same
intriguing face and veiled predatory look. There was a hardness
about her that was absent in the others. Kennon had the feeling
that whatever this girl did, she didn't do it half way.
"My sister Eloise," Alexander said in a low voice. "Watch out for
her. She's as deadly as a puff adder and she collects men. The
other man is Douglas's father, Henry. The plump redhead beside
him is his wife, Anne. The other woman is my mother, Clara, even
though Eloise and I don't look like her. We take after Father."
"Where's he?" Kennon whispered.
"Dead," Alexander replied. "He was killed twenty years ago."
"I'd like to present Dr. Jac Kennon, our new veterinarian,"
Alexander said into the hush that followed their entrance. The
introductions that followed were in proper form, and Kennon was
beginning to feel more at ease until Eloise sent one of her Lani
with a summons. He looked around for Alexander, but the
entrepreneur was the center of a three-cornered argument, hemmed
in by Douglas, Henry, and Anne. Henry's voice was raised in
bitter protest that Alexander was exceeding his authority. He
shrugged. There was no help there.
"All right," he said, "tell your mistress I'll be along in a
moment."
"Yes, Doctor," the Lani said, "but the Woman Eloise says for you
to come, and she is not accustomed to being disobeyed."
"Tell her what I said," Kennon replied. "I shall be there
directly." He crossed to the table and examined it, selecting a
cluster of odd purple fruit which looked more interesting than it
tasted. When he had finished he walked leisurely over to where
Eloise sat.
She looked at him angrily. "I am accustomed to being obeyed by my
employees," she said coldly. Her dark eyes, oddly like her
brother's, traversed his hard body like twin scanners.
He returned her appraising stare with one of his own. "I'm not
your employee," he said bluntly. "I was hired by your brother,
and there's a full peeper rider on my contract." His eyes
traveled slowly over her carefully arranged hair, her make-up,
her jewelry at throat and arms, her painted finger- and
toenails, and then across the slim small-breasted lines of her
body half revealed under her thin ankle-length tunic of Lyranian
silk.
"Satisfied?" she asked.
"On Beta," he said bluntly, "your appearance would qualify you
for a parasite camp. Six months of hard labor would do you no end
of good. You're soft, lazy, and undisciplined."
Eloise gasped. "Why, you----"she sputtered.
"And perhaps next time you'll learn to be polite," Kennon
continued imperturbably. "After all, the superficial attributes
of good breeding are not too hard to counterfeit."
To his surprise, Eloise giggled. "You bite, don't you?" she
asked. "Remind me to remember that."
"I shall."
"Of course, your actions weren't good breeding either."
"Admitted -- but I've never pretended to be what I'm not. I'm the
son of a spaceship skipper, and I'm a veterinarian. That's all."
"That's not all. You are also a man." Her face was sober, "It's
been some time since I've met one. I'd almost forgotten they
existed."
"There's your brother."
"Alex? -- he's a money making machine. Come -- sit beside me and
let's talk."
"About what?"
"You -- me -- your job, your life -- anything you wish?"
"That line isn't exactly new," Kennon grinned.
"I know," she admitted, "but it usually works."
"I'm immune."
"That's what you think." Eloise's eyes were frankly appraising.
"I think I could become interested in you."
"I have a job here. I don't think I would have time to give you
the attention you'd demand."
"I get bored easily. It probably wouldn't be long before I would
be tired of you."
"Perhaps -- and perhaps not, I can't afford to take the chance."
"You seem confident."
"You forget. I was a sailor."
"And spacemen have a reputation, eh?" Eloise chuckled.
"At that, you might be right. I remember the first officer
of--"she let the thought die. "But I became tired of him," she
finished.
Kennon smiled. "I've never had that complaint."
"Perhaps you'd like to make the acid test?" she asked.
"Perhaps," he said. "But not tonight."
"Tomorrow then? Alex will be leaving in the morning. He never
stays more than a few hours." Eloise's eyes were bright, her lips
moist and red.
"I'll pick the time," Kennon said -- and added to himself, "If
ever." Despite her wealth Eloise was no different from the
port-of-call girls. If anything, she was worse since she had
enough money to implement her desires. They were merely in the
trade for business reasons. No -- Eloise would be something to
steer clear of. Alexander was right. She was a mantrap. He stood
up and bowed Betan fashion. "I see your brother is free now. He
wants to brief me on my duties here. We were discussing it before
we entered."
Eloise pouted. "You can always do that."
"You said yourself that Alexander never stays here very long. I
would be a poor employee if I delayed him." He grinned knowingly
at her and she smiled back with complete understanding.
"Very well, then. Get your business done. Your pleasure can
wait."
Kennon steered Alexander over to an open window that led to a
balcony. "Whew! he said. "I see what you mean."
"She's a tartar," Alexander agreed. "I suspect that she's a
nymphomaniac."
"You suspect?" Kennon asked. "By this time you should know. Let's
get out of here. I've had about all of your sister I care to
take."
"Can't say as I blame you. I'll show you to your quarters. Maybe
Old Doc left a bottle or two, although I suspect the old sinner
hung on until the last one was empty."
"If he had to put up with your relatives as a steady diet, I
can't say that I blame him," Kennon said.
"Careful, Doctor. You're talking about my kinfolk," Alexander
said wryly. "At that, though, you have a point." The two men
slipped quietly from the room. Apparently none of the Family was
conscious of their departure except Eloise, who watched them
leave with an enigmatic expression on her narrow face.
They left the fortress through the rear gate and walked slowly
down the winding path that led to the cluster of buildings in the
valley below. It was a beautiful night, calm and clear with the
stars shining down from the dark vault of the heavens. The
constellations were strange, and Kennon missed the moons. Beta
had three, two of which were always in the sky, but Kardon was
moonless. Somehow it gave the sky an empty look.
A damp coolness rose from the ground as the evening rain
evaporated mistily into the still air. Kennon sniffed the odor of
soil and growing vegetation, clean pleasant odors in contrast to
what he had left. In the distance a bird called sleepily from one
of the fortress turrets and was answered by some creature Kennon
couldn't identify. A murmur of blended sound came from the valley
below, punctuated by high-pitched laughter. Someone was singing,
or perhaps chanting would be a better description. The melody was
strange and the words unrecognizable. The thin whine of an
atomotor in the fortress's generating plant slowly built up to a
keening undertone that blended into the pattern of half-perceived
sound.
"Nice, isn't it?" Alexander remarked as they rounded another turn
on the switchback path.
"Yes. You can't hear a sound from back there except for that
generator. It's almost as though we shut those people out of
existence by merely closing a door."
"I wish it were that simple," Alexander said. "But doors that can
be closed can also be opened. Well - think you'll like it here?"
"I think so, providing I don't have to entertain your
relatives.''
"You mean Eloise? Don't worry about her. She's as fickle as the
wind."
"I've never seen anyone so frankly predatory," Kennon said. "She
worries me."
"They'll all be gone tomorrow -- except for Eloise," Alexander
said with mock comfort. "Douglas is on the Otpens for a year, and
the others are off somewhere."
"You'll be staying, I suppose."
"No -- I'm afraid I can't."
"I hoped you'd help me get organized. This whole thing has been
something of a shock. I was expecting something entirely
different."
"Sorry -- someone has to run the business. But Blalok'll brief
you. Actually he's more qualified than I. He knows everything
worth knowing about this place. We're going past his house in a
minute--want to stop in and see him?"
"It's pretty late."
"Not for Blalok. He's a Mystic -- a nocturnal. He's probably
doing his work now."
"Perhaps we shouldn't disturb him."
"Nonsense. He's used to it. I visit him frequently at night."
"Sure -- but you're the boss."
"Well -- in a sense you are too. At least in the veterinary end
of this business." Alexander swung sharply to the left and
climbed a short flight of stairs that led to the nearest house.
Lights flared on the deep porch, and the old-fashioned iris door
dilated to frame the black silhouette of a stocky,
broad-shouldered man.
"Good evening, sir," he said. "I was expecting you. That the new
vet with you?"
"Your pipeline's still working, I see," Alexander said. "Yes,
this is Dr. Kennon -- Evald Blalok -- I wanted you two to meet."
Kennon liked the gray middle-aged man. He looked honest and
competent, a solid quiet man with a craggy face and the deep-set
eyes of a Mystic. His skin had the typical thickness and pore
prominence of the dwellers on that foggy world from which he
came. But unlike the natives of Myst, his skin was burned a dark
brown by Kardon's sun. He seemed out of place on this tropic
world, but Kennon reflected wryly that there was probably more
than one misplaced human here, himself included.
"I've been going over Station Fourteen's records with Jordan,''
Blalok said as he ushered them into the house. A tall
black-haired man rose as they entered.
"Skip the formality, Jordan. Sit down," Alexander said, "and meet
Dr. Kennon -- Steve Jordan -- Jordan runs the Lani Division."
Kennon nodded acknowledgment as Alexander continued, "What's this
trouble at Fourteen?"
"I don't know. We've got an epizootic of something. Another
youngster died this morning, and there's three more that look
pretty bad, jaundice, no appetite, complaining of muscular pains.
Same symptoms as took the others. The one this morning makes the
fourth this month, and we're only half through it."
"Are all your losses in this one station?" Kennon asked.
"No -- but it's worst there."
"I don't like losses like that," Alexander said.
"Neither do I," Jordan replied.
"This isn't Jordan's fault, sir," Blalok said quickly. "As you
know, we haven't had a vet for three months."
"Two," Alexander corrected.
"Three -- Old Doc wasn't around at all the month before he died,"
Blalok said. "As a result we've got a problem. We need
professional help."
"Well here he is -- use him," Alexander said. He looked at
Kennon, a trace of amusement on his face. "There's nothing like
getting into things early."
"Particularly when one comes into them stone cold," Kennon added.
"It's a poor way to start a career."
"We can't afford to wait," Jordan said. "We need help."
"I'll see what can be done," Kennon replied. "Have you saved the
body?"
"Every one of them," Jordan said. "They're in the hospital in the
autopsy room."
That was sensible. A post-mortem might give us an answer. Where's
the hospital?"
"I'll show you," Jordan offered.
"Count me out," Alexander said. "I have a weak stomach."
"I'll go along if it's necessary," Blalok said.
"There's a staff there, Old Doc trained them," Jordan said.
"Then it shouldn't be necessary," Kennon said.
Blalok sighed with relief and turned to Alexander. "We could
check the records while those two are about their bloody work."
"I'd rather check a long strong drink," Alexander replied. "What
with the Family and this, it's too much to take for one evening."
Kennon hid a smile. Alexander had a weak spot. He was squeamish.
That was a good thing to know.
CHAPTER VI
Jordan opened the door of the two-story building below Blalok's
house. "This is it," he said, "just outside your front door.
Convenient -- no?"
"Too convenient," Kennon said, "also too quiet. Isn't anyone on
duty?"
"I wouldn't know. Old Doc never kept the place open at night."
There was a stir of movement in the darkness, the lights flashed
on, and a sleepy-eyed Lani blinked at them in the sudden glare.
She looked blankly at Kennon and then brightened as she saw
Jordan. "What's the trouble, sir?" she asked.
"Nothing. We want to look at the Lani I sent down this morning --
Dr. Kennon would like to inspect the carcass."
"You're the new doctor?" the Lani asked. "Thank goodness you've
come! I'll get the staff. I'll be back in a moment." She stepped
quickly over to the switchboard beside the door and punched five
buttons. Four more humanoids came into the room, followed a
little later by a fifth.
"Where's the emergency?" one asked.
"He is -- it's our new doctor."
"More females," Kennon muttered to himself. He turned to Jordan.
"Aren't there any males in this crew?"
Jordan stared at him with mild surprise. "No, sir -- didn't you
know? There are no male Lani."
"What?"
"Just that," Jordan said. "Only females. There hasn't been a male
on the island since Old Man Alexander took over. He killed them
all."
"But that's impossible! How do they reproduce?"
"Ever hear of artificial fertilization?"
"Sure -- but that's a dead end. The offspring are haploids and
they're sterile. The line would die out in a generation."
"Not the Lani--you can see for yourself. We've been using the
technique here for better than four centuries, and we're still
doing all right. Over forty generations so far, and from the
looks of things we can go on indefinitely."
"But how is it done?"
"I don't know. That's Alexander's secret. The Boss-man doesn't
tell us everything. All I know is that we get results. Old Doc
knew how it was done, and I suppose you will too, but don't ask
me. I'm dumb."
Kennon shrugged. Maybe -- maybe not. At any rate there was no
sense in belaboring the point. He turned to the staff. Five of
them were the same big-boned heavy-framed type that apparently
did most of the manual labor. The sixth, the late arrival, was an
elegant creature, a bronze-skinned, green-eyed minx with an elfin
face half hidden under a wavy mass of red-brown hair. Unlike the
others, she had been docked - and in contrast to their heavy eyes
and sleep-puffed features she was alert and lively. She flashed
him an impish grin, revealing clean white teeth.
Kennon smiled back. He couldn't help it. And suddenly the tension
and strangeness was broken. He felt oddly at ease. "Which of you
are on duty?" he asked.
"All of us," the redhead replied, "if it's necessary. What do you
want us to do?"
"He's already told me. He wants that last carcass prepped for a
post-mortem," the nightcall Lani said.
"Good," the redhead said. "It'll be nice to get to work again."
She turned to face Kennon. "Now, Doctor -- would you like to see
your office? Old Doc left a fine collection of notes on Lani
anatomy and perhaps you could do with a little review."
"I could do with a lot of it," Kennon admitted. "Unless the inner
structure of a Lani is as similar to human as their outer."
"There are differences," the redhead admitted. "After all, we
aren't quite alike."
"Perhaps I'd better do some reading," Kennon said.
"You need me any more?" Jordan asked.
"No -- I think not."
"Good. I'll get back. Frankly, I don't like this any better than
Blalok or the boss, but I'm low man on that pole. See you later."
Kennon chuckled as Jordan left. "Now, let's get ready for that
cadaver," he said.
"Carcass, doctor," the redhead corrected. "A cadaver is a dead
human body." She accented the "human."
Even in death there is no equality, Kennon thought. He nodded and
the Lani led the way to a door which opened into a good-sized
office, liberally covered with bookshelves. An old-fashioned
plastic desk, some office cybernetics, a battered voicewriter,
and a few chairs completed the furnishings. The redhead placed
several large folio volumes in front of him and stepped back from
the desk as he leafed rapidly through the color plates. It was an
excellent atlas. Dr. Williamson had been a careful and competent
workman.
Half an hour later, well fortified with a positional knowledge of
Lani viscera, Kennon looked up at the redhead. She was still
standing patiently, a statue of red-gold and bronze.
"Get a smock and let's go," he said. "No -- wait a minute."
"Yes, sir?"
"What's your name? I don't want to say 'Hey you!'"
She smiled. "It's Copper Glow - want my pedigree too?"
"No -- it wouldn't mean anything to me. Do they call you Copper
or Glow? or both?"
"Just Copper, sir."
"Very well, Copper - let's get going."
* * *
The body of the dead Lani lay on the steel table, waxy and
yellowish in the pitiless light of the fluorescents. She had been
hardly more than a child. Kennon felt a twinge of pity - so young
- so young to die. And as he looked he was conscious of another
feeling.
It had been an open secret among his classmates that he had
refused an offer to study human medicine because of his aversion
to dissecting cadavers. The sarcoplastic models were all right,
but when it came to flesh, Kennon didn't have the stomach for it.
And now, the sight of the dead humanoid brought back the same
cold sweat and gut-wrenching nausea that had caused him to turn
to veterinary medicine eight years ago.
He fought the spasms back as he approached the table and made the
external examination. Icterus and a swollen abdomen - the rest
was essentially normal. And he knew with cold certainty that he
could not lay a scalpel edge upon that cold flesh. It was too
human, too like his own.
"Are you ready, Doctor?" the Lani standing across the table from
him asked. "Shall I expose the viscera?"
Kennon's stomach froze. Of course! He should have realized! No
pathologist did his own dissection. He examined. And that he
could do. It was the tactile, not the visual sensations that
upset him. He nodded. "The abdominal viscera first," he said.
The Lani laid back the skin and musculature with bold, sure
strokes. An excellent prosectress, Kennon thought. Kennon pointed
at the swollen liver and the Lani deftly severed its attachments
and laid the organ out for inspection. The cause of death was
obvious. The youngster had succumbed to a massive liver-fluke
infestation. It was the worst he had ever seen. The bile ducts
were thick, calcified and choked with literally thousands of the
gray-green leaf-shaped trematodes.
"Let's look at the others," he said.
Two more post-mortems confirmed the diagnosis. Except for minor
differences, the lesions were identical. He removed a few of the
flukes and set them aside for further study.
"Well that's that," he said. "You can clean up now."
He had found the criminal, and now the problem assumed the
fascinating qualities of a crime hunt. Now he must act to prevent
further murders, to reconstruct the crime, to find the modus
operandi, to track the fluke to its source, and to execute it
before it could do more harm.
Photographs and tri-dis would have to be taken, the parasite
would have to be identified and its sensitivity to therapy
determined. Studies would have to be made on its life cycle, and
the means by which it gained entrance to its host. It wouldn't be
simple, because this trematode was probably Hepatodirus hominis,
and it was tricky. It adapted, like the species it parasitized.
Kennon leaned back from the microscope and studied the
illustrations in the parasitology text. No matter how much
Hepatodirus changed its life cycle, it could not change its adult
form. The arrangements of the suckers and genital structures were
typical. Old Doc's library on parasites was too inadequate for
more than diagnosis. He would have to wait for his own books to
be uncrated before he could do more than apply symptomatic
treatment. He sighed and rose slowly to his feet. Tomorrow was
going to be a busy day.
The door opened behind Mm and Copper slipped quietly into the
office. She looked at him curiously, a faint half-shy smile on
her face.
"What is it?" Kennon asked.
"Are you ready to fill out the autopsy protocol? It's customary."
"It's also customary to knock on a door before entering."
"Is it? Old Doc never mentioned it."
"I'm not Old Doc."
"No, you're not," she admitted. "You're much younger - and far
more beautiful. Old Doc was a fat, gray old man." She paused and
eyed Kennon appraisingly with a look on her pointed face that was
the virtual twin of Eloise's. "I think I'll like working for you
if you're as nice as you are pretty."
"You don't call a man beautiful or pretty!" Kennon exploded.
"Why not?"
"It just isn't done"
"You're a funny human," she said. "I called Old Doc beautiful,
and he didn't mind."
"That's different. He was an old man."
"What difference does that make?"
"I don't like it," Kennon said, hitting on the perfect answer.
She stiffened. "I'm sorry, Doctor. I won't do it again." She
looked down at him, head cocked sideways. "I guess I have a lot
to learn about you. You're much different from Old Doc. He didn't
snap at me." She paused for a moment, then drew a deep breath.
Kennon blinked.
"About that report," she said. "Regulations require that each
post-mortem be reported promptly and that a record of the Lani
concerned be posted in the death book together with all pertinent
autopsy data. Man Blalok is very fussy about proper records." She
drew one of the chairs to a spot beside the desk and sat down,
crossed her long legs, and waited expectantly.
Kennon's mouth was suddenly dry. This situation was impossible.
How in the name of Sir Arthur Fleming could he dictate a coldly
precise report with a naked redhead sitting beside him? "Look,"
he said. "I won't need you. I can operate a voicewriter. You can
pick up the material later and transcribe it."
Her face fell. "You don't like me," she said, her green eyes
filling with quick tears. "Old Doc never---"
"Oh, damn Old Doc!" Kennon snapped. "And stop that sniveling --
or get out. Better yet -- get out and stop sniveling!"
She leaped to her feet and fled.
Kennon swore. There was no reason for him to act that way. He had
been more brutal than necessary. But the girl -- no, the Lani --
was disconcerting. He felt ashamed of himself. He had behaved
like a primitive rather than a member of one of the oldest human
civilizations in the galaxy. He wouldn't bark at a dog that way.
He shook his head. Probably he was tired. Certainly he was
irritable, and unclad females virtually indistinguishable from
human weren't the most soothing objects to contemplate.
He wondered if his exasperation was real or merely a defense
mechanism. First Eloise, and then this! Confound it! He was
surrounded! He felt trapped. And it wasn't because he'd been away
from women too long. A week was hardly that. He grinned as he
recalled the blonde from Thule aboard the starship. Now there was
a woman, even though her ears were pointed and her arms were too
long. She didn't pressure a man. She let him make the advances.
He grinned. That was it. He was on the defensive. He was the one
who was being pursued -- and his male ego had revolted. He
shrugged and turned his attention to the autopsy report, but it
was hopeless. He couldn't concentrate. He jotted a few notes and
dropped them on the desk -- tomorrow would be time enough. What
he needed now was a stiff drink and eight hours' sleep.
CHAPTER VII
Kennon stopped at Blalok's house long enough to tell the
superintendent what was causing the trouble. Blalok scowled.
"We've never had flukes here before," he said. "Why should they
appear now?"
"They've been introduced," Kennon said. "The thing that bothers
me is how Dr. Williamson missed them."
"The old man was senile," Blalok said. "He was nearly blind the
last six months of his life. I wouldn't doubt that he let his
assistants do most of his work, and they could have missed them."
"Possibly, but the lesions are easy to see. At any rate, the
culprit is known now."
"Culprit?"
"Hepatodirus hominis -- the human liver fluke. He's a tricky
little fellow -- travels almost as far as men do."
"I'm glad it's your problem, not mine. All I can remember about
flukes is that they're hard to eradicate."
"Particularly H. hominis."
"You can tell me about it later. Right now Mr. Alexander's over
at Old -- your house. Probably he's looking for you."
"Where's Jordan?"
"He went up to Station Fourteen. We'll see him tomorrow."
"I'll say good night then," Kennon said.
"I'm glad you're here. It's a load off my shoulders. See you
tomorrow." Blalok waved a friendly good night and left the lights
on long enough for Kennon to make his way to his quarters.
Alexander was seated in a heavily upholstered chair listening to
a taped symphony in the stereo, his eyes half closed, an
expression of peace on his face. An elderly Lani stood beside
him. It was a comfortable picture.
The humanoid saw Kennon and gasped, a tiny indrawn sound of
surprise. Alexander's eyes snapped open. "Oh -- it's you," he
said. "Don't worry, Kara -- it's your new doctor."
Kara smiled. "You startled me," she said. "I was dreaming."
"On your feet?" Alexander interjected idly.
"I should have known you at once, Doctor. There's talk about you
all over the yards, ever since you arrived."
"They know what is going on around here better than any of us,"
Alexander chuckled. "The grapevine is amazingly efficient. Well
-- what's the story?"
"Liver fluke."
"Hmm - not good."
"I think it can be stopped. I looked at the records. It doesn't
seem to have been here too long."
"I hope you're right. How long will it take?"
"Several months, maybe a year, maybe more. I can't say. But I'll
try to clean it up as quickly as possible. I'm pretty sure of the
fluke, and it's a hard one to control."
"Hepatodirus?"
Kennon nodded.
"That's an offworld parasite, isn't it?"
"Yes. It originated on Santos. Parasitized the Varl originally,
but liked humans better. It's adapted to a hundred different
planetary environments, and it keeps spreading. It's a real cutie
- almost intelligent the way it behaves. But it can be licked."
"Good - get on it right away."
"I'm starting tomorrow."
"Fine -- I thought you'd be the right man. Kara! Fix the doctor a
drink. We might as well have a nightcap -- then I'll go back to
the house and listen to Henry and Anne's screams about poor
mistreated Douglas, and then back to Albertsville tomorrow. Duty
and the credits call."
With mild surprise, Kennon realized that Alexander was drunk. Not
obnoxiously, but enough to change his character. Intoxicated, he
was a friendlier person. If there was any truth in the ancient
cliche about alcohol bringing out a man's true character, then
Alexander was basically a very nice person indeed.
"Well -- here's your home for the next five years," Alexander
said. "Eight rooms, two baths, a freshener, and three Lani to
keep the place running. You've got it made."
"Perhaps -- we'll see when we tackle this fluke infestation.
Personally, I don't think I'm going to have an easy time.
Tomorrow I'm going to be up to my neck in trouble trying to save
your profits."
"You'll do it. I have confidence in you."
"I still think you should have hired a medic."
"This isn't all of your job," Alexander said. "And besides I
can't afford to do it. Oh - not the money, but it might be
admitting that the Lani might be human. And we've gone to a great
deal of trouble to prove they're not." He shifted uncomfortably
in his chair. "There's a story behind this."
"I wouldn't doubt it."
"Maybe it'd be better if I told it. It goes back over four
centuries. Grandfather was a clever man. After he had secured
this island he became worried about the surviving Lani. He didn't
want to be accused of genocide, since the Lani were so human in
appearance. So he had his medical officer make a few autopsies.
The M.D. reported that while there was similarity, the Lani were
probably not human.
"That was enough for Grandfather. He requested a Court of
Inquiry. The court was sitting in Halsey and the hearing was
private. Even so, it leaked and Grandfather was highly unpopular
for a time until the lab reports came in. It cost him over eight
hundred Ems and nearly two years' time to finish the case, but
when it was over the Lani were declared alien, and Grandfather
had ironclad discovery rights.
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