"But the manual--"
"The manual didn"t mention Joe"s people, either," she said half-hysterically. "_Get Toots out of here._"
Still unbelieving I walked over and hauled the little fuzzy animal up into my arms. Instantly, he cuddled close and rammed his pointed snout under my open collar and began nibbling at my neck. I took him outside, and out of perverse curiosity I let him have his way with my neck. At first it tickled, as always, but instead of batting his head away I let him nibble with his soft, pointed lips.
Sue called out, "Sam what are you doing? Kill him, Sam!"
His lips spread into a little circle on my flesh and began sucking gently. There was no pain, just the throb of my jugular under his mouth.
Now his long, soft, hairy arms became firmer around my neck. I jerked back and they gripped hard. A chill of panic stabbed me, and I could feel the taut flesh of my neck drawn more deeply into his puckered lips.
I tugged at him silently, not wishing to frighten Sue. He wouldn"t come loose. In broad, noon-daylight I had a Sirian vampire in my arms, threatening to rupture my jugular vein and kill me within speaking distance of half a hundred people. I tried to level my voice. "Joe, would you come out here, please?"
He came at once, stared with a blank expression and said, "You have been drinking much tala?"
"Help me, dammit!" I said, holding my voice down. "I can"t shake him loose. He"s trying to--" The long, tight arm squeezed off my breath. In turn I tried to strangle him, but under the thick fur was a bony protection where there should have been soft neck.
"It does no good to kill the _koodi_," Joe said. "There is always another. Once they hold you tightly it is too late."
Sue thought differently. She came through the door like a h.e.l.l-cat.
Catching up her garden hoe she swung a blow that, had it missed Toots, would have crushed my skull. But Sue didn"t miss. I fell on my back, and Toots let go, dead of a broken spine.
The "liquor control board" was Benson"s best idea. Not only did it put tala on a legitimate basis, but it controlled our dealings with the natives. Bromley, the chemist, who was the original offender, was charged with manufacturing the wooden matches, and the medium of exchange was concentrated in the hands of the commissary "purchasing agent".
The reason that Benson sanctioned the controlled tala trade with the natives stemmed from our apparent failure to sterilize the males. There was, indeed, a huge crop of native babies, tiny little dolls that looked like spider monkeys and dropped from their mothers" b.r.e.a.s.t.s after little more than a week.
The brisk tala trade was part of our program to keep the natives in close a.s.sociation while we devised ways and means to discover the cause of our failure. All quarantine rules had long since been dropped, and Sorenson and Bailey began inventing ruses to lure the males into the gas chamber again.
Weeks pa.s.sed while we worked our way through the whole male population again, testing for fertility and X-raying it wherever we found it.
Through Joe we advertised new wonders to be seen in the ship, and as the sight-seers left we tagged each with an atomized spot on the other shoulder, indicating that he was still sterile or had just become so.
This time we tallied 496 males which, according to Joe, was certainly the whole masculine population. The mystery of our failure at genocide forced an unpleasant decision on Benson. The biologists and medics insisted that we must win the natives" confidence even further to gain their cooperation. As the heat of summer bore down and the mercury rose, we eased off on the work schedule and deliberately planned social functions to which we had Joe invite a group of natives. There were picnics and beach parties where our guests brought their own tala, and ours was carefully rationed. Group singing entranced the little golden people, and they took remarkable delight in the discovery of their own, sweetly pitched voices. Enterprising Joe, with his remarkable memory, soon became unofficial song leader, and all day long we would hear the natives practicing.
Sue"s baby came, a st.u.r.dy little boy whom we named Richard Joseph--Sue insisted on the second name, and I couldn"t argue her out of it without revealing my reasons. Within two weeks the clinic"s nursery was full of babies, and it was at this point that the natives" interest became deeply stirred.
The language barriers were breaking down rapidly. Many of our regular visitors were females, and with Joe"s help as an interpreter they were soon able to ask questions. Their greatest curiosity hinged on the fabulous care we gave our infants.
Although I wouldn"t permit Sue to do it, several of our women began using female natives for baby-sitters. This led to the first basic behaviour change we had noticed. The females began to pay more attention to their own offspring. It was as if they had just discovered the pleasure of fondling their babies and watching them crawl and kick and gurgle. Even after the first week they were still carrying them around, finding choice morsels of fruit for them, fanning off the insects and singing them to sleep with their new-found abilities to make music.
Benson noticed it and called a meeting of the secret six. He said, "Our little program had better work this time or we are in for it. Apparently this _koodi_ animal that Sam had the tussle with is the princ.i.p.al population control, and now the mothers are packing their kids around until they"re old enough to fight off the _koodi_."
Donnegan shook his head. "d.a.m.ned if I can find out where we slipped up.
Frost and I just finished a series of tests with native ova and human sperm. They don"t mix. Of course, we didn"t expect them to, but what in h.e.l.l is the answer?"
I hadn"t known of this project. I said, "You didn"t think that our male colonists--"
Benson scowled with exasperation. "We don"t know what to think, Sam! We sterilized 481 native males last fall, and the babies are just as thick as ever."
I said, "Well, we got to 496 of them this time. That should do it for sure. Joe says he"ll keep a lookout for any males without the two stains on his shoulder."
Benson narrowed his eyes. "You know, it strikes me that Joe is being awfully helpful. What reason did you give him for wanting this information?"
"He didn"t ask," I said.
Our 12-month year was composed of 37-day months, except February which we shorted six days to make it come out even.
According to this calendar the "May-flies" came in July, just a month before our first anniversary. The little winged insects were a seasonal life-form, one more item that escaped the exploratory party, and for which we were unprepared.
They came out of the north, and they struck us before we could take shelter in the ship or our plastic-screened huts. They were a little smaller than flying ants, and even their long wings were jet-black.
Their bites were infinitesimal, but each one smarted like a p.r.i.c.k with a hot needle.
In the midst of the confusion of rescuing babies and herding everyone in doors, I noticed that all the natives had disappeared into the forest.
Everyone had suffered a hundred bites or more, and we were sorry, swollen sights. Sue insisted that I cover myself and make a run for the clinic to see if Dr. Bailey had any remedies for the bites. Richard Joseph was crying loudly from the irritation, so I agreed.
It was only 75 yards to the clinic, and I made it without collecting many more stings. But the doctors had nothing to offer. They were dabbing various salves, astringents and pastes on test patches of their own skin, but nothing seemed to have any effect at all.
"All we hope," said Sorenson, "is that the flies aren"t microbe-carriers."
I started out the door to return then stepped back and peered through the screen. The forest was erupting with natives. They staggered into the clearing, headed for the center of it and sank down as if with great weariness. On and on they came until the ground among our buildings was literally paved with their p.r.o.ne bodies.
"Poor devils." Bailey murmured as the clouds of flies continued to sweep through our village. "Nothing we can do, though. I wonder why they come out in the open? You"d think they had better protection in the trees."
I had no answers, so I covered my head again and made a dash for my own hut. Inside I brushed off the clinging flies and stamped on them. "The medics don"t have any help for us," I said. Then I saw him.
Sue was struggling to hold Joe on his feet. His arms were draped loosely over her shoulders, and for a second I couldn"t decided whether he was ill or making a pa.s.s at Sue.
I pulled him off her by one shoulder. He swung around and toppled into my arms. Remarkably few insect bites showed under the transparent haze of golden hair, but he reeked of tala.
"You"re drunk," I yelled at him. "A lot of help you are at a time like this!"
"Tala," he said from loose lips. "Much tala."
"You"ve had much tala, all right!" I said disgusted.
Sue said, "We"ve got to let him stay in here, Sam. The flies will eat him alive out there." She went to the window and knocked the flies from the outside of the screen. Then she screamed. I thought she had just discovered the ma.s.sed natives, but she kept on screaming until I went to her and looked out.
In the late afternoon sun, fuzzy little brown animals were waddling out of the forest, closing in on the 900 or more natives lying senseless in the clearing. _Koodi!_ Dozens of them.
I forgot my screaming wife, my crying infant, the drunken wife-stealer slumped on the floor. I forgot the torture of my own stings. All I remember is s.n.a.t.c.hing my pistol from its holster that hung by the door and plunging out and pulling the trigger until fire ceased to come out of it. Then I was kicking and smashing with a tree limb, and every blow smashed one of the vile little ghouls into the gra.s.s. I thought I saw Benson firing and kicking, but I blacked out before I could be sure.
I regained consciousness with the flies still keening in my ears. Sue was calling my name and slapping me sharply in the face. Joe was trying to pull me to my feet, but the last thing I remember is the both of us collapsing to the ground.
I awoke days later with a burning fever and gloriously drunken sensation of floating. Joe brought a fruit to me when he saw I was stirring. I drank the thin, tangy juice in one breath and sank back into a deep sleep again.