Federation World

Chapter 31

THE interstellar matter transmitters, which had remained dark and inactive while three generations of Keidi had grown to maturity on the planet below them, blazed suddenly with light. During the Exodus hundreds of them had encircled Keida like a dazzling string of jewels which shone so brightly that night had become a soft, gray twilight.

Now there were only the ten which had remained in orbit, to accommodate those Keidi who were expected to try for Federation citizenship from time to time. A combination of pride, independence, hostility, and, in recent years, the guards and labor camp of the First Father.had kept them inactive, but ten of them were more than enough to handle the transfer of the present Keidi population.

Martin said, “They’ll have to go to one of the areas allocated to warm-blooded oxygen breathers with similar gravity and atmosphere requirements, but with enough distance separating them to avoid premature contact with…”

“Do I understand you correctly?” the doctor broke in harshly. “Are you going to move my people from this, our home planet, to an alien and dangerous world? One that is already populated by strange, frightening, and perhaps hostile creatures whose effect on the Keidi is unknowable. And you would do this without asking their permission or giving prior warning? You are doing a great wrong, off-worlder.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Beth said tiredly. “But there is nothing to threaten you on the Federation World, unless it is some of your own people. And yes, that is what he intends unless you can make him change his mind.”

To Martin she went on pleadingly, “We are considering contravening Rule One, but we haven’t actually done anything yet. If we changed our minds even now, the supervisor might consider this a temporary aberration in a couple of otherwise responsible non-Citizens. It was bad enough letting the First blackmail you into keeping his organization intact, so that his particular form of poison could reinfect all of Keida. But now you’re going to infect the Federation World itself with that same poison. I can’t even imagine what they will do to us for that. Think, please. There must be another answer.”

“We both know that this is the only answer,” Martin said quietly. To the doctor he went on, “The Keidi will be told exactly why and where they are going and what to expect when they get there. We owe them that much, at least, for precipitating this disaster…” “But Regulation One…” Beth began. “I know, I know,” Martin said impatiently. “It states that no intelligent being who has not passed through an induction center and qualified as a Federation Citizen or non-Citizen in Federation service may be transferred to the Federation World, nor may he, she, or it be given information about the World. I think the last part was probably included so as not to make the Undesirables feel too bad about what they were missing, it being considered kinder not to tell the damned too much about heaven.”

Beth shook her head. “Couldn’t we move them temporarily to the north and south continents? It would be rough on them, especially on the very old and young, but only for the time necessary to explain the situation to the supervisor and get permission to…”

“If permission was not given,” Martin broke in, “and we, through a combination of moral cowardice and inaction, had to leave the Keidi here to degenerate physically and culturally on their contaminated planet, I don’t dunk we would feel very proud of ourselves.

“While I’m talking to the refugees, let them see what is happening to their planet right now,” he went on, “and be ready to project the Federation World visuals to all centers.”

“Except the First’s?” Beth asked.

“All centers,” Martin said. “I have a promise to keep.”

He talked slowly and simply and without making any attempt at verbal dramatics, letting the inputs from the visual sensors do that for him as he described the present plight and the probable fate of the Keidi people should they remain on their home world. While he spoke Beth projected the terrifying, three-dimensional pictures of the great chasms that were beginning to open up in their forests and fields, splitting or swallowing up or demolishing newly built shelters and the old, pre-Exodus buildings alike.

He spoke of the north and south continents which were free of earthquakes but, because Keida did not have the axial tilt which would have given seasonal changes, remained cold and virtually barren, requiring pre-Exodus levels of population and technology to make them habitable. This was the reason why the Keidi had gravitated to the now. doomed equatorial continent and the Estate of the First. He reminded them of the words of the First and the doctor when they had been describing the short- and long-term effects of radiation exposure. He told them that Keida was no longer a suitable home for its people, and that when they moved into the matter transmitter compartments they would be transferred to another world.

It was a world where the soil was fertile, the temperature and climate mild, and the territory available to them and their descendants unlimited. It was the world where the pre-Exodus Keidi who had qualified for citizenship and their descendants now lived and flourished. In centers all over Keida the interior lighting dimmed, and he showed it to them.

Beth said softly, “Just let the First try to take the credit for that!” The doctor made an untranslatable noise so high-pitched that it might have come from one of the First’s child trainees, and Martin had to stop talking for a moment because the sight, although familiar to him, was still enough to take his breath away.

In all the projection screens there blazed a picture of the countless suns which crowded the center of the galaxy, except, that was, for the one place in the middle of the picture where there hung a featureless, black diamond shape which absorbed the light all around it like a gigantic, three-dimensional shadow.

“This,” Martin said, “is the Federation World…”

He went on, trying to word the explanations of what the World was and how it was made, so that even the younger Keidi, untutored as they were in astronomy and astrophysics would understand.

As the view from interstellar space was replaced by sharply detailed pictures of the interior, Martin tried to describe its topography and environmental variations, its incredibly advanced technology, and, most importantly, its reason for being.

“… The primary purpose of the Federation is to seek out the intelligent races of the galaxy and bring them to this place of safety before they perish in some natural catastrophe or in some unnatural manner devised by themselves. In this world they will grow in knowledge and in numbers and, in the stillness of time, they will intermingle and share the fruits of their respective cultures. Ultimately they will be capable of achievements unimaginable to the most advanced minds among its present-day Citizens,

“But it will be a slow, natural process,” he continued, “free of any kind of physical force or mental coercion. While the Citizens are climbing to the technological, philosophical, and cultural heights, they must be protected from those who, like a slow growing, insidious malignancy, would warp and weaken and ultimately destroy them from within. That is why the examination and induction centers were set up on all the inhabited worlds discovered by the Federation, to exclude the troublemakers, the power seekers, the intelligent predators who prey on their own kind, and so it was on Keida.”

Martin paused for a moment to let his words sink in. Beth was staring at him, her face looking white and pinched. The doctor’s eyes were on the screen. Neither of them moved.

“After the Exodus,” he resumed, “the only people remaining on Keida were these Undesirables and those Keidi who would have qualified for citizenship but for reasons of their own elected to stay. Since then two generations of Keidi have been born, many of whom would have qualified for citizenship had they not been prevented by force or misinformation from visiting the induction centers. But now the Keidi who remain are in danger and there is no time for the usual examination and selection process. It had been decided that, rather than allow the potential Citizens to share the fate of the Undesirables, everyone who chooses to do so will be moved to the Federation World.”

He had to give them a choice because the Keidi were proud and independent to a fault, but they were not stupid. Martin sighed and took the final, irrevocable step.

He said briskly, “Will everyone who has chosen to go please form into groups of twenty persons or less and move with your possessions into the matter transmitter compartments. Don’t worry about being separated, everyone who is presently occupying a center will be sent to the same destination. Shelters and basic needs will be fabricated and supplied shortly after your arrival…”

He ignored the attention signal winking impatiently on the comm panel. The First was trying to talk to him.

“… Since you have not been accepted as Federation Citizens,” he went on, “you will be placed at a sufficient distance from the descendants of the Keidi who preceded you so that you will not be able to meet or influence them until such contact is mutually desired. But the distances separating your new towns and settlements will be similar to those you are accustomed to on Keida, that is, within a few days’ or weeks’ journey by land. The sole exception to this will be the First, his Family, and the specially chosen members of his Estate. They, for the reasons I have already outlined, will be placed together at a very great distance from everyone else.”

He pressed his accept button and said, “Speak, First Father.”

“There has been gross misdirection, off-worlder!” the

First said angrily. “For my help with the evacuation you are obligated to allow me to stay with my people, with all of my people!”

“My obligation,” Martin said firmly, “was to allow you to keep your Family and your organization intact wherever I sent you. That obligation will be discharged.”

“Listen to me, you treacherous off-worlder,” the First said in a voice that was so calm and controlled that it made Martin shiver. “My people need me on this new, safe, comfortable world. More than ever they must be organized, disciplined, toughened, welded together into one tight family unit that will be the fear and envy of the countless millions of soft, spineless Federation creatures all around them. Be warned, off-worlder, my Estate will cover even your great Federation World. Mere distance will not keep me from my Keidi, and from fulfilling my destiny.”

“Mere distance…” Martin began, and stopped.

The First had not realized the awful size of the super-world-nobody, himself included, could. A diameter in excess of two hundred and eighty million miles and a useable surface area of nearly two hundred fifty quadrillion square miles, or well over one billion times the entire surface area of Keida. He would place the First one million miles, or maybe more, from the other Keidi settlements. It would be a very long walk, over fallow, synthesized soil or the as yet uncovered metal shell of the world itself, to reach them-if he knew which direction to take. But suddenly Martin felt sorry for this fanatical old Keidi Undesirable who honestly believed that he knew what was best for his people, and he resisted the temptation to gloat.

Instead, he said, “It is possible that, without your influence, the Keidi will become full Citizens in time. And it is possible that the descendants of your organization, with nobody but themselves to organize and order around, will also grow to maturity and sanity and become eligible. That is my belief and my hope.

“The other centers are emptying quickly,” he went on. “Your building’s foundations have been severely weakened and it may collapse at the next shock. You must leave with your people at once. “We will not meet or speak again.”

Even though it seemed that a couple of the centers were disintegrating around the last few Keidi to leave them, the evacuation was completed without injuries or loss of life. With the planet emptied of potential Citizens requiring transport, the great, orbiting matter transmitters disappeared one by one as they began the long hyper-jump back to their Federation World maintenance docks. The doctor had been delighted to learn that he would be able to rejoin his city people in their new home, but not for several days because he would have to travel back on the hypership. There was no need for them to wait for the eruption, but under the circumstances neither Martin nor Beth were in any hurry to return.

“Volcanic activity is always difficult to predict with accuracy,” Beth said, trying to make conversation with a life-mate who had seemingly taken a vow of silence. “Even with our deep probes it isn’t possible to be sure of the exact timing or size of the energy release. But it will be a big one.”

After another lengthy silence the doctor, for the first time, called him by name.

“Now I believe that my understanding of your situation is complete, friend Martin,” he said. “When you spoke of your concern over a great wrong you were about to commit, I assumed that it would be a serious misdirection against the First for imprisoning both of you. That would have been understandable if not praiseworthy. But now I realize that the wrong is directed against your superior, your own First Father, for the benefit of the Keidi, and that the offense is both unprecedented and so serious that chastisement of an unimaginable kind is likely to result.”

The strange puckerings which briefly distorted the alien features must be an expression of deep, personal concern, Martin thought. He sighed and said, “That’s true. Whatever is decided it is certain to come as a surprise. But don’t worry, they might not be too hard on us.”

The old Keidi rose to his feet and unfolded his long, strangely jointed arms until one hand rested gently on Beth’s head and the other on Martin’s. He did not point his speaking horn at them as he said, “Please turn off your recorders, this knowledge is for you alone. My name is Thretagartha. You are my Family.”

Martin swallowed but did not speak. Beth said, “You honor us, Thretagartha.”

“Martin and Beth,” the old Keidi went on, “as your advisor, assistant, and Father on Keida, the responsibility for what has happened is partly mine. I shall speak, therefore, to the horrendous, highly intelligent but morally confused off-worlder who is your supervisor, and explain that…”

He broke off. Beth was pointing wordlessly at the main screen.

A great, black flower flecked with the bright red streaks of molten lava, rooted in the site of the buried arsenal, was growing out and upward into the stratosphere. For hundreds of miles around the eruption the central continent was behaving, not as land surface but as a sea on which there rolled long, green, forested waves. As they watched the original fault line opened up in both directions like an enormous, ragged-edged wound oozing with the angry red sores of secondary eruptions, widening and lengthening until the land mass was split open from coast to coast.

The ocean poured in to fill the wound, exploding into steam as the water met the molten core stuff and setting off further eruptions. Then gradually the violently dying continent was covered by a streaked and dirty shroud of smoke and steam and stratospheric dust. And radiating from its devastated coastline came the tidal waves, mountainous and irresistible as they thundered toward the habitable coastal strips of the north and south continents.

“And we,” Beth said numbly, “were worried about the effects of residual radiation.”

“Martin,” the doctor said. “No Keidi could have survived this, and no wrong has been done here.”

A few minutes later they left the Keida system, and except for the persistency of mental vision which projected the events of the last few hours onto the flickering gray blur that was hyperspace, there was nothing to see or say because nobody wanted to talk. Martin’s chest and shoulder began paining him again, and he decided to pay an overdue visit to the medical module.

As he climbed into the treatment cabinet he still could not rid himself of those ghastly mind-pictures of Keida’s destruction. But now they were interspersed with those of the First interrogating them in the cell at Camp Eleven; and organizing, directing, bullying, and encouraging the Keidi refugees like the military officer he once had been; and his words and manner as he had boasted that his Family Estate would one day include the entire Keidi species, and even the Federation World itself. Then just before the anesthetic took effect there was the picture of Thretagartha and the last words that the Doctor had spoken to him.

No wrong has been done here,

But had there been?

The doctor was returned to his people by a robot spacecraft and the hypership was instructed to remain Outside, where it hung between the black metal of the superworld and the breathtaking starshine of the galactic core. In the past such an order had meant an early reassignment, but this time it could mean anything.

Their supervisor did not keep them waiting.

“No,” Martin said. Beth gripped his hand tightly but did not speak, so he went on quickly, “Investigations showed that the majority of the Keidi were not Undesirables, but were being prevented by physical and psychological coercion from presenting themselves for candidate examination at the induction centers. In the situation which developed it seemed inherently wrong that potential Citizens should suffer because of the power seeking Undesirables among them. The children of Undesirable parents were also potential Citizens, so the decision was taken to…”

Martin took a deep breath before continuing. “It seemed to me that I was continuing the Citizen selection process which preceded the Exodus. On Keida, had the planet not been rendered uninhabitable, the people would never have been free of the military rule of the Estate. The First, by insisting that those he had chosen to form his present and future military organization should stay together, made the isolation of the confirmed Undesirables a simple matter. The progress of both groups, potential Citizens and Undesirables, can be monitored more easily here than on Keida.

“It is my hope,” he went on, “that among the descendants of the First’s people an increasing number of Citizens will arise until, in time, the Undesirables among the Keidi will become extinct.”

“Not quite,” Martin said. “It also seemed to me that Undesirables, regardless of their planet of origin, are analogous to a wasting disease which can ultimately bring about the death of many species. Federation Citizens are protected, isolated, from this disease. This is not necessarily a good thing because soon they will have no understanding of this cultural malady, and no defense should they encounter it when, in the distant future, our people emerge from this overprotected womb to go out among the other galaxies. So it occurred to me that our Citizens might be immunized against this disease by exposing them for short periods, inoculating them, with its dead or inactive germs, as is done during the vaccination process.

‘That is all,” he ended bitterly, “except that I consider it grossly unfair that a Contactor Three should be faced with such a damnable and unique dilemma, between the breaking of the First Rule and the saving of so many lives.”

Martin felt an angry surprise, and deep sympathy, for his predecessor or predecessors who had been caught in the same trap. He wondered what the sentence for such an offense had been, and knew that he would shortly find out.

“Here it comes,” Martin said grimly. Beth’s grip on his hand tightened.

“Wha-the?…” Martin began incredulously. Beth was laughing and beating her fists against his chest, unmindful of his recently cracked ribs. Intense relief, he thought, was a very effective painkiller.