Battlefield Earth (86 page)

The reception had gotten going now. People were over their shock. They were serving food. They were smiling as they passed him. More bows.

Two escort planes were aloft. Jonnie’s and the third plane were ready to scramble.

Evening had come and they had found enough wood to make a fire. But an enemy would show on a viewscreen up in the sky.

They made speeches. They were grateful to Jonnie many times and he was a welcome quest. Then it was Jonnie’s turn.

He was flanked by a Coordinator who knew Chinese and a monk who also knew Sherpa. Jonnie had to speak in English for the Chinese-speaking Coordinator and in Psychlo for the monk, and the monk had to translate into Sherpa or Tibetan or whatever it was so it took a bit of time waiting. But not too much.

After some pleasant responses to their speeches, Jonnie got right down to it. “I can’t leave you here,” he said and pointed at the sky. “And you can’t leave any you have left at home.”

Oh, they surely agreed with that!

Jonnie looked at their fire lit faces as they sat in their different groups. “It is cold in these mountains.” They certainly agreed with that, particularly the Chinese. “There apparently isn’t much food.” Oh, he was so very right; Lord Jonnie was very perceptive and he knew how thin their children were. “There are ways you can help. Ways you can help to defeat the Psychlos, possibly forever, if they come back. Ways you can help defeat the aliens in the sky.”

One could have heard a snowflake fall, it was so still. He thought they hadn’t understood him. He opened his mouth to repeat. And this orderly throng became totally disorderly. Forgotten were manners. They surged forward; they pressed so tightly close to him he had to stand up.

Only one eager question was being roared at him now in at least three tongues. “How? How can we help?”

These beaten people, these ragged, starved remnants of once-great nations had not really dreamed they could be of value. That they could assist. That they might have a role to play besides to hide and starve. It was a mind-shattering thought. To help.

The Coordinators and chiefs somehow got them back in their places around the fire but they couldn’t sit down. They were too excited.

When Jonnie could speak again, it was into a new stillness. But he suddenly realized he might have more audience than he intended. Could the visitors upstairs monitor this? Probably. He held a hurried consultation, low-voiced, with a senior Coordinator. Yes, the man whispered back. There was a large hall beneath the palace. It had been cleaned out.

Jonnie spoke to Chief Monk Ananda. Wild-eyed with excitement, the Buddhists went into the hall. Jonnie got a mine light from the plane. He closed the door. This was an atmosphere they loved.

Jonnie spoke to them very quietly. They spoke Psychlo. They spoke Pali, a dead language. They also spoke some tongue known as Tibetan. Yes! they whispered back. Jonnie told them he would see their library was flown out to a safe place. They could have a deep section of the Russian base for it and their temple. But were they afraid of heights? They laughed; that was a silly question to ask mountain people. Did they mind being scattered all over the globe and living with other tribes? No, no. That was fine. They were not really withdrawn from the world just because they lived in a monastery. They had to live in the caves because of danger.

He told them what a communicator was. If people gave them a message in Psychlo, they could put it on the radio in Pali and the Buddhist at the other end could put it back into Psychlo. And the enemies upstairs would never understand. They thought it was

marvelous. A whole worldwide Pali-speaking network. Yes, yes, yes!

But now there was a sobering thought. At some time one of them might be captured and made to give messages. And if so they would give the message in Tibetan, and that was their secret. It was dangerous.

All life was dangerous. They accepted, every man, woman, and child of them and accepted for the ones at home too! Jonnie tried to tell them their pay would be a credit a day, which was fair pay in most tribes, but he didn’t get a chance. They would go and that was that. And they knew it was secret and they would tell nobody. They even tiptoed out the door.

The next were the Sherpas. There was a lot of hunting to be done; there were even occasional peaks to climb elsewhere. There were huge plains in Russia, teeming with sheep and cattle.

There was an awful lot of meat drying and preserving to be done. Could they, all of them, go to Russia and help stock that base with food? Food? They themselves were starving. Yes, indeed, they would hunt and stock the base with food.

Then Chief Chong-won brought in his people. Secrecy was a breath of life to them. Jonnie began by telling them there was a place that was not too healthy, that had a fly that carried a sickness, but proper precautions and nets could handle it. There were also savage beasts but there would be armed guards and they too could learn to shoot. Insects? Beasts? They didn’t care about those! Where was this place? What did he want them to do? They would leave right away. Was it a far walk?

Jonnie told them they would go by plane. But there was another thing. Although the place was a mile high, it could be hot there.

Hot? A place that was hot? How marvelous! How absolutely marvelous! Who cared how hot?

Jonnie asked them whether they could build things. They proudly told him they had kept up their studies. Some of them were engineers. They could build anything.

Now all this was very secret, said

Jonnie, but he had a place near a large power dam that had to be cleared up and cleaned out and the hills dug into and bunkers made. They would get technical assistance. They would even get machines and operators and could themselves learn-

They had eight trainees over in America right now learning about machines! Why were they delaying here talking? Where was this place?

Jonnie told them they would get a credit a day each and bonuses for completions. And they could have land afterward.

Chief Chong-won asked the people whether they agreed. And they thought he was just delaying things. Of course they agreed!

Jonnie returned to the celebration. But it was not a celebration now. Little groups had their heads together working it all out but whispering and in incomprehensible tongues. Jonnie told them good night and they all faced him and bowed and he bowed back.

En route to pass the night in his plane, just in case, he stopped by the ore carrier where the Tolnep lay. He had an impulse to call Half-Captain Rogodeter Snowl and chew on him. But he didn’t. Let the half-captain stew. That was a future battle.

     In Scotland, Jonnie delayed a meeting with the Chiefs as long as he could. He was expecting discs and further progress from America. But Glencannon had not arrived.

Finally Robert the Fox, who had come up for the meeting from Africa, told him the Chiefs were getting restless so Jonnie accompanied him.

The house Chrissie had found was just by Castle Rock and it was only a short walk. They didn’t talk en route, eyeing the overcast sky above them.

Two gillies armed with lochaber axes and blast rifles let them into the entrance of an underground passage. The Chiefs had found the remains of powder magazines and air-raid shelters from some ancient wars and had suspended reconstruction of their parliament house and had refurbished the deep caverns instead. Mine lights burned in niches and cast the shadows of clan banners upon the domed roof.

The Chiefs were all there. They had been there for hours. But they gathered around and shook Jonnie’s hand and clapped him on the back. Finally the Chief of Clanfearghus brought the meeting to order.

Robert the Fox played them some discs of the radio telescope intercepts.

Aside from other items in them, the Chiefs were amazed at the dissimilarity of faces in the combined force. They were also very interested in a game these creatures were playing by viewscreen: one of Robert’s prisoners had identified it as “klepp.” Each player had a board of six sides and six different sets of pieces, and when one of them made a move, the other players would make the same move on their boards. The pieces were little spaceships and tanks and marines and soldiers, and they had different movements and were held down magnetically to a board of six-hundred-sixteen hexagons. It wasn’t the game that interested the Chiefs but the fact that the announced stakes were different items of loot from this planet. It sobered them.

Then Robert told them about infrabeams and that it would be unwise to discuss things out in the open. Sir Robert had gotten a full description of them from a Hockner prisoner. If you had to talk in the open you should turn on an “interference generator,” but they didn’t have those.

The Chiefs tried to pass a motion to forbid talking in the open air or telling people things they would then discuss in the open. It was also proposed that they begin a campaign with the slogan “The Enemy Has Long Ears.” But the Chief of the Argylls took the floor and informed them that they could not pass legislation affecting all tribes because they were not the government of all tribes- that was located over in America, even though they would be at war with it eventually. What they proposed was usurpation of the powers of state.

This was Jonnie’s cue. He got up and reminded them that the first government actions had been taken by them up in the Highlands, beside the lake and in the meadow, that they were the original legislative body. They must preserve the semblance of a government in America and not act as though that government didn’t exist for this would ruin his plans. But action must be taken to protect the people of the planet. This ruling body here controlled the World Federation for the Unification of the Human Race. He was sure that body would take their orders and ignore those from America. They could call their orders

“Federation Orders” and they would be international in effect.

“Hear, hear!” said Sir Andrew MacNulty, head of the Federation.

Dunneldeen, continued Jonnie, was a titular prince of Scotland named, he thought, after this very Rock, Dunedin. He controlled the pilots or could control them-

“Dunneldeen and you control the pilots,” the Chief of the Campbells corrected him.

Jonnie told them that this legislative body controlled the pilots. And the War Chief of Scotland controlled all effective troops- omitting only the Brigantes. So in actual truth it was this body that controlled the planet. If his argument prevailed with them they should pass confidential resolutions to this effect and then make dispositions as they saw fit.

They discussed it a bit and then so resolved it. Sir Andrew MacNulty was to carry out their wishes with the tribes, Sir Robert was to execute their directives in the military sector. And due to the peculiarities of the situation, orders from the American governing body were to be ignored without creating suspicion. The American body had supported enemies of Scotland, enemies with whom Scotland had a blood feud. The present emergency required emergency actions.

It was what Jonnie wanted.

Sir Robert then got up and described the spread-out character of the few people remaining on the planet and put forth the principle that one must collect the population into a minimum number of strong points that could be defended. He had a plan that would do this.

They wanted a summary of the situation as the MacTyler saw it. Since the MacTyler was part of and a member of every clan and for innumerable other reasons, his estimate would be valued.

Jonnie privately had hoped to have further word from America before meeting such a question. So much depended on what Terl was doing, and there seemed to be a long blank period in which he had heard nothing.

He was not going to give some of the data he needed to this body anyway for he wanted no chance of leaks. But this body had quite a role to play.

He rose and told them (a) they did not know for certain what had happened to Psychlo and there was some possibility of a counterattack; (b) the visitors were a heavy threat-he did not know why they were holding off and it was worrisome, but they were buying time with it and must be ready and should work fast; and (c) the primary concern was the preservation of the people of Earth-they were not just endangered as a race; they could quite abruptly become extinct.

They thanked him and passed Sir Robert’s plan. They were very sober.

There was other business.

They called in Dr. Allen who was deeply involved with Federation tribal movements. In his opinion it was a danger to combine tribes and bring them too close together, due to the fact that their immunities to various diseases might have diminished. The tribes had long been separated from one another and epidemics of smallpox or typhoid fever and other diseases could occur. He had several assistants. He had been flying about doing what he could. He had read all available man-texts on vaccination, innoculation, sanitation, insect control, and such matters and they had prepared serums. He wanted two measures: the first was compulsory isolation of every person who seemed to have signs of illness; the second was compulsory innoculation and vaccination. He was getting excellent cooperation from Coordinators and tribal chiefs but he wanted his program made official.

The Chiefs passed it as a Federation

Directive with their approval and the order was to be issued by Sir Andrew MacNulty.

Then MacAdam of the Planetary Bank was ushered in. He had requested an audience with the Chiefs for three reasons. Short and gray-haired and conservative, MacAdam was very courteous to them and very precise. He had a portfolio of papers and he put it down on the table.

To begin with, that government in America was throwing money around and creating local inflation which could then spread to other areas; the Brigante troops were being paid a hundred credits a day, each one; there were supposed to be about seven hundred sixty of them and this made seventy-six thousand credits a day which was about double the yearly budget of most other tribes; they didn’t value the money, threw it around in the streets; there was not much to buy in America now and no product to absorb the funds. He was not there without a solution: he wanted authority from somewhere to issue a special American bank note which could then devaluate against the currency of the rest of the world. He had reason to believe the government there would accept it, if the issue omitted the picture of Tyler and replaced it with one of Brown Limper Staffor for that issue. The caption would be “Brown Limper

Staffor, Senior Mayor Planet Earth.” In his opinion the omission of the Tyler picture would also cause the currency to further deflate in value but he didn’t think Tyler should be on a devalued issue. What did they think?

Tyler smiled. The Chiefs laughed and gave MacAdam their blessing.

MacAdam wanted more than that. He wanted a second charter, much like the first, but from this body. It wouldn’t be publicly displayed but he wanted it in his safe.

They read it and passed it.

Then MacAdam objected to some private, preliminary discussions he had had with Sir Robert to the effect that he should move his bank from Zurich to Luxembourg. It was inconvenient and difficult. They would also have to move presses and find staff housing in Luxembourg.

The Chiefs called on Sir Robert. He told them that there was a Psychlo minesite at Luxembourg where the Psychlos had gotten their local planetary iron supplies. Close by it was a fortress from ancient times; in fact Luxembourg meant “little fortress”; it had been a crossroads of banking and trade for a couple of thousand years. It was a temporary measure. Luxembourg could be defended. Zurich could not be.

They told MacAdam he better move.

MacAdam resignedly said he would. But he had another matter and that was the expenses of war preparation. Certain costs were being incurred that were not covered by tribal budgets or guaranteed by tribal lands. He had a solution to it which was to make loans against something else.

Jonnie asked to speak. He said he knew of quite a few mineral deposits (he did not say how he knew), and once things were calm again, they could be mined. They were quite extensive. They knew his earlier connection with mining and should be able to take his word for it. These could serve as a loan guarantee if held as property of the chiefs and not of tribes.

MacAdam said did they know Brown Limper claimed to own the whole planet? The Chiefs said they knew of that. Also that he claimed to own the whole Earth branch of Intergalactic Mining?

The Chief of Clanfearghus said that valid or not, part of such deeds belonged to them, and they would pledge their share of these mineral deposits to guarantee the war expenses.

MacAdam had a quiet smile. He knew which way the wind blew. He accepted that. He would not violate their confidence.

The Chiefs passed a resolution to that effect and gave Sir Robert the right to draw against this open account at his discretion as a “war chest.”

Much later, it was a very sober group that broke up.

Gillies escorted Jonnie to his door.

Chrissie was up and waiting for him and served him some tea and what she said were “crumpets.”

Legs stretched out, shirt thongs unlaced, feet in soft moccasins, Jonnie sat in the drawing room. He was worried about events in America but he forced his attention onto domestic things.

Chrissie was telling him that the parson and Aunt Ellen would be here for lunch tomorrow and she hoped he would be at home. Aunt Ellen was doing so well here in Scotland- her cheeks had filled out and she had lost a cough she had had. She was looking quite young, really.

Jonnie said you could say that about Chrissie. She looked very pretty with her long cornsilk hair piled up on top in a big puff, her eyes were brighter and blacker, her tunic cloth that had been made into a gown set off her figure even better than buckskin. The collar scars had almost vanished. Chrissie blushed over the compliments he gave her.

Pattie was better. She had gotten terribly thin. She was still in bed from her fever but it had subsided, leaving her weak. Jonnie should visit her in the morning. The only worry was that Pattie did not seem to take any interest in anything. Maybe Jonnie could tell her a story about something.

Jonnie asked whether the house had a basement and she said yes, a strong deep one. Jonnie told her she had found some very nice furniture and if things got rough she should put the better pieces in the basement, well protected. And did she have a safe place in the underground shelters at Castle Rock? Chrissie said she had thought of all that and he mustn’t worry about her. She had been around in the world now and had her share of experience. And wouldn’t he like some more of this tea? And another crumpet?

He found it all very pleasant. It was a lovely old house, so different from those decayed ruins in the old village. If they could just win through somehow and if his luck held, maybe someday the rather remarkably pleasant fact of sitting in this drawing room and talking about calm matters with Chrissie or friends would become routine.

Then the gong at the door was struck and Chrissie went to open it.

With a shout, Jonnie jumped up to greet Glencannon.

- Part XXIII -