Treasure Of The Stars

Chapter 13

It took Blade quite a while to get used to the sights at the asteroid base.

The base took up most of the asteroid, an oval chunk of rock about twenty miles long and twelve miles thick. Most of it was a mass of workshops, spaceship hangars, laboratories and observatories, and living quarters. Everything was connected by a maze of tunnels and elevators. About two-thirds of the asteroid was strictly out of bounds to Blade.

In the very center of the asteroid was an artificial cave a mile and a half wide and a thousand feet high. The floor of the cave was a carefully tended park, with flowers, lawns, full-sized trees, and even a small lake.

Scattered through the park were dozens of buildings of as many different shapes, sizes, and uses. Blade saw buildings made of brick, metal, wood, and plastic. He saw a few whose walls weren't even solid matter, but shimmering golden force fields. He saw shops, restaurants, public baths, athletic fields, and secluded vine-grown pavilions for open-air lovemaking.

Everywhere he saw both Kananites and Menel moving about and mingling freely, with less strain than he'd seen between tourists and local people in Paris or London. Kananites drifted into Menel-owned shops and came out with small bottles of brown powder that Riyannah said were spices. Menel either stood at tables or lay on couches since they could not sit in Kananite-owned restaurants-using three-tined forks to demolish huge plates of fried vegetables and emptying copper steins of what looked like pink beer.

Eventually Blade got used to ducking flying claws when Menel got into particularly heated arguments. He got used to pointing out items on a menu to a waiter who looked like an eight-foot stalk of asparagus and held a computerized notepad in a foot-long claw like a lobster's. He even got used to telling when one of the Menel had drunk more than he could handle.

«It doesn't happen very often,» said Riyannah. «Their systems can absorb so much alcohol that they usually get indigestion before they get drunk. But sometimes one has a-a 'cast-iron stomach,' you call it?»

«Yes.»

«Then it-«

«It?»

«Yes. The Menel are neuter except when they want to reproduce, and they never do that except on their home planet.»

«Do they avoid sex when they're neuter?»

«Oh no, the external organs still function. They just have a different set of rituals and techniques.» Riyannah hesitated. «In fact, their organs are physically compatible with Kananite sex organs. Some of the more-curious-of both races have developed methods for sex with each other.»

Blade tried hard to imagine what that must look like and failed completely. He also hoped he wouldn't have to try interspecies sex in order to be accepted among either the Kananites or the Menel. He was a fairly broad-minded and experienced man, but he did have his limits.

«I think we were talking about liquor, not sex,» he said to Riyannah. «So the Menel sometimes get drunk. Then what happens?»

«Sometimes they just fall asleep. The rest of the time-if you ever see a Menel walking and holding himself absolutely straight and rigid, keep out of its way. When they drink they stop swaying.»

«Unlike my people, who start swaying when they've had too much to drink,» said Blade. They were sitting in an outdoor cafe, and he divided the last of a bottle of wine between his cup and Riyannah's.

«Kananites too,» said Riyannah, running her hand up his arm to his shoulder. «Shall we sway off somewhere together and find a nice quiet patch of grass?»

«Sounds like a damned good idea,» said Blade. That was the end of a serious conversation for several hours.

The Menel and the Kananites seemed to have worked out a fairly complete system of sign language, allowing for the physical differences between them. The Menel had no fingers, but they did have two extra arms. Blade saw entire meals ordered and large purchases made in shops without a single word or sound.

Every so often, though, Menel and Kananites wanted to conduct more detailed conversations, for business or pleasure or simple curiosity. Then they needed help.

Every hundred yards or so all over the central cave were clusters of red globes perched on green poles. Each globe had a set of dials and buttons on each side, as well as earplugs and microphones hung on hooks. When a Menel and a Kananite wanted to talk, they found a vacant globe, stepped up to opposite sides, and put on the earplugs and microphones. Then they would settle down for anything from a few minutes to a few hours, taking turns listening and talking.

Some of the globes stood alone. Most were in clusters of four to six, and in the shopping centers there were a few clusters with as many as fifteen or twenty globes. Blade saw one group of thirteen Menel and twelve Kananites take over one of the large clusters and settle down for a long conference. In fact, the conference went on so long that somebody eventually ordered dinner and a swarm of Menel and robot waiters brought out a dozen carts loaded with food and drink.

«That's the first dinner party I've ever seen where all the conversation has to go through a computerized translator,» said Blade. «It might be a good idea to apply back home to fight bores. Somebody gets drunk or tries to monopolize the conversation, you pull the plug, and that's the last of him for the rest of the evening!»

Riyannah laughed. «I've been tempted to do that a few times myself. Some of the Menel take themselves so seriously. The Goran of Scientists are about the worst. But it's considered very bad manners to cut somebody off unless they've actually gone to sleep, turned violet, or started making love.

«The content and structure of the two languages aren't too far apart,» Riyannah went on. «In fact they're amazingly close together, considering how physically different we and the Menel are.»

«I know what you mean,» Blade said. «Our own scientists have sometimes argued that two races from different worlds could only understand each other if they were physically alike. Perhaps that's why I found it so easy to learn Targan.»

«Perhaps,» said Riyannah. They were both silent for a moment, remembering that Blade's similarity to the Targans had already caused some trouble and might cause more.

«In any case, although we think very much alike, we cannot speak alike. We have lungs, tongues, lips, and vocal cords. They have a system of vibrating disks of bone and air tubes that can be shut off or opened. They can't make any of the sounds of our language and we can't make any of the sounds of theirs.»

«That must have caused trouble back when you'd just met the Menel.»

«It did. Fortunately both sides wanted to solve the problem. They called on their best linguists and their biggest computers. They used sign language and pictures to work out a basic vocabulary. Then they put the vocabulary into the computer and designed Speakers to duplicate the sounds of either language. That was most of the work. We've just been adding to the vocabulary and building bigger computers ever since.»

«I see. Kananites and Menel can't talk to each other without the Speakers?»

«No.»

A good deal now fell into place for Blade. Kananites and Menel rode as passengers in each other's ships, but the crews were always all-Kananite or all-Menel. A spaceship crew had to have almost instant communication. Even if the ship's computer could run a Speaker, there would be too much of a delay. In combat it would be worse, and if the computer was damaged so that the crew couldn't talk to each other that would be the end of everything.

For the same reason Kananites and Menel each had their own half of the asteroid and kept pretty much to it. They mixed freely only in the central cave, the recreational area common to both races. The asteroid's computers could handle translating five or six hundred Kanan-Menel conversations but not five or six thousand. Kananites and Menel could get along quite well enough even when living and working apart most of the time.

Living and working, yes-but what about fighting? What was going to happen when Dark Warrior was finished and Loyun Chard sent her out to attack the asteroid? For the first time Menel and Kananite would be fighting literally side by side. What would happen to the base then, particularly if the computers were damaged and the Speakers started going out?

Blade decided he'd better find out what plans were being made to meet the coming Targan attack. Part of his decision was pure self-interest. He might still be on the asteroid when the attack came and he didn't want to be a helpless bystander.

Most of his decision was a desire to help. He was now certain that Riyannah was telling the truth about the Kananites and the Menel. Both races were better than the Targans as they would be under the rule of Loyun Chard. They deserved all the help he could give them.

Now to find out how much that would be.

Blade did his best to be helpful, but promptly ran into several stone walls. To start with, he wasn't even allowed to visit two-thirds of the asteroid. That two-thirds included practically everything he wanted to see, particularly the asteroid's own defense weapons.

Blade was finally able to get hold of a plan of the asteroid and study it closely. He still hadn't been hooked up to one of the Teacher Globes to have a knowledge of the Kananite language implanted directly in his brain. He was beginning to suspect this wasn't accidental. In spite of this he'd picked up enough Kananite to be able to read the plan fairly well.

After a few hours' study he concluded that the asteroid was unarmed except for the weapons aboard the patrol ships based there. The Menel and the Kananites had spared no expense fitting it out with laboratories, observatories, repair shops, and living quarters with all the comforts of home for both races. They hadn't given it a single heavy weapon.

This seemed so ridiculous to Blade that he asked Riyannah what the real situation was. He was hoping to be told that there were asteroid-based weapons the plan didn't show and that he couldn't be told about.

Instead Riyannah nodded. «You are quite right. Except for the patrol ships, the base has no defenses.»

«Why? I can understand why it wasn't armed when the Targans didn't have a space fleet. But now they're building the starship as fast as they can, and she'll be only the first of many. Surely the base ought to have something.»

Riyannah smiled sadly. «It should. But there's a reason for its being unarmed, a very simple reason. Richard, I don't think you understand just how the Twenty Cities of Kanan deal with each other.»

«Apparently I don't.» He found it impossible to keep an edge out of his voice, although he knew he ought to. Riyannah wasn't responsible for this situation, and it wasn't fair to take out his irritation on her simply because she was the only Kananite he could talk to.

Riyannah explained. Each of the Twenty Cities of Kanan was completely independent in all the material things of life. This was inevitable when the energy came from the sun and food, clothing, and housing could literally be extracted from the air, the water, and the earth. So there was no need to fight or compete over resources.

On the other hand, there was a continuous struggle, polite but very stubborn, for prestige. A City could win a victory in this struggle by discovering a new planet, developing a new art form, winning an athletic competition, or doing something to impress the Menel.

«What do the Menel think of this game-playing?» Blade asked.

«The Menel are a united planet. Their only divisions are those among the different Gorani. They don't really understand what we're doing. I think they would call it silly, except that they're too polite. In any case they're also realists. They know there's no other way of dealing with Kanan except by allowing the 'game-playing' among the Cities.»

«And I should follow the same path as the Menel?» said Blade.

Riyannah shrugged. «You said it, I didn't. But certainly if the Menel haven't been able to change us in five hundred years, you aren't going to do it.»

The Twenty Cities of Kanan could cooperate if there was a good reason. There'd been a good reason when it came time to establish the asteroid base for keeping watch on the Targans. Every City contributed people and equipment and resources to setting it up. Everyone recognized the need for the base. They also recognized that contributing generously was one way of showing off before the other Cities and the Menel.

So the base was finished. Every City contributed, but no City wanted to risk another's getting control of the base. It was too valuable. So the Kananites who manned it were carefully chosen in equal proportions from all twenty Cities. The important leadership positions were carefully rotated among people from the distant cities.

Finally, it was absolutely forbidden to arm the base. Each City sent a few armed patrol ships to help defend it, but that was all. No one wanted to risk what might happen if the base was armed. Then one City might suddenly gain control of it and be able to defend it against the ships of the other Cities. That might even lead to war among the Kananites, or at least to some fairly serious fighting.

The base was not that valuable in itself. The resources put into it were small compared to the total wealth of Kanan. It was just that whichever City took it over would win a great prestige victory, making the other Cities look foolish in the eyes of the Menel.

It was a very simple situation, one that could lead to defeat and disaster for the Kananites. They'd abolished war but they hadn't abolished competition, politics, or intrigue. In fact they were so in love with their polite political rivalries that they seemed ready to sacrifice lives and wealth rather than give them up.

«Don't the governments of the Twenty Cities realize that the situation is changing fast?» he asked. «If the base can't defend itself, everybody is going to lose. Everybody is going to look silly in front of Menel, and perhaps worse. Do you think the Menel will be happy having their people die because the Kananites want to go on playing games?» He tried to speak calmly and almost succeeded.

«Blade, please,» said Riyannah, raising a hand to stroke his cheek. «I am not one of the high leaders even of my own City, let alone one who sits on the Council of Kanan. I am a scientist and your friend. That is all. I cannot even get a word from the Council here on the asteroid, when you will be taught Kananite or sent to Kanan! So do not be angry with me for not changing what I cannot change. Do you think I want the Targans defeated any less than you do?»

«No, Riyannah. I shouldn't have let myself become angry with you. But damn it, you people can't sit around much longer, never mind who's to blame for what!»

«I'm sure the Kanan Council knows this as well as you do,» she said. «Or at least they will, once they receive word of Chard's starship. Certainly they will send more patrol ships here. Anything more will take time. The old way of doing things has kept the peace on Kanan for a thousand years. Do you want us to risk becoming like the Targans in order to defeat them?»

«Of course not.»

There wasn't much else to say. The Kananites had certainly accomplished something worthwhile by outlawing war. Unfortunately they'd also outlawed quick decision-making, even when they badly needed it. Loyun Chard didn't sound like the sort of man to wait around politely while his enemies argued over the best way to fight him.

The days dragged on, one by one, slowly adding up to weeks. Blade had given up hope of being taught the Kananite language. All he hoped for now was a starship to Kanan, where he might be allowed to put his case before the Council of Kanan. He was prepared to use Riyannah as an interpreter if necessary.

More days. Blade began to wonder if the asteroid Council had decided he shouldn't go to Kanan at all. What was wrong with them? Did they think he was a Targan in disguise? He knew Riyannah was practically camping on the Council's doorstep, but it didn't seem to be doing any good. Blade began to feel like a caged tiger, and sometimes he couldn't keep himself from snarling at Riyannah.

Then at last the Menel came to his rescue.

Riyannah returned one evening from her daily visit to the Council office with a broad grin on her face and several bottles under her arm.

«We can celebrate, Richard,» she said, kissing him. «We're going to Kanan in a Menel ship!»

Blade grinned. «Did you have anything to do with this, by some chance?»

«I suppose I did. There was the commander of the Menel patrol ships at the base. When I talked to him about how his people in the two ships we saw died, I mentioned our own problems. He said he couldn't promise anything, but he'd speak to the other Menel leaders here.»

«I thought the Menel might have their own opinions on all this-delay,» Blade said. He'd almost said «nonsense,» but he didn't want to be rude, not with the first battle won. «When do we leave?»

«The ship will be landing here tomorrow. Then they'll have to unload its cargo and passengers. We'll be on our way in two or three days.»

Blade started twisting the top off one of the bottles. «Riyannah, get some glasses. We are indeed going to celebrate.» Then he noticed that Riyannah was unfastening her tunic. He smiled.

«All right. There's more than one way to celebrate, and we've got plenty of time.»