Homeward Bound Part 16

In principle, though, they remained the same. They had identical rocket motors at front and back, and smaller maneuvering jets all around. Get one pointed the way you wanted it to go, accelerate, get near where you were going, use the nose rocket to decelerate the same amount, and there you were. Easy as pie . . . in theory.

Of course, lots of things that were easy in theory turned out to be something else again in reality. This was one of those. Even with radar, gauging distances and vectors and burn times wasn't easy. But Johnson had started as a Marine pilot flying piston-engined fighters against the Race. He'd been shot down twice, and still carried a burn scar on his right arm as a souvenir of those insane days. If he hadn't been recovering from his wounds when the fighting stopped, he would have gone up again-and likely got shot down again, this time permanently. Life for human pilots during the invasion had been nasty, brutish, and almost always short.

And Johnson had done as much patrol flying in Earth orbit as any man around before . . . joining the crew of the Lewis and Clark. Lewis and Clark. And he'd taken a scooter from the And he'd taken a scooter from the Lewis and Clark Lewis and Clark to one rock in the asteroid belt or another, and from rock to rock as well. If any human being was qualified to fly one while orbiting Home, he was the man. to one rock in the asteroid belt or another, and from rock to rock as well. If any human being was qualified to fly one while orbiting Home, he was the man.

He discovered s.p.a.cesuit design had changed while he was in cold sleep, too. The changes weren't major, but the helmet was less crowded, instruments were easier to read, and there were fewer sharp edges and angles on which he could bang his head. All of this was the sort of thing the Lizards would have done automatically before they ever let anybody into a s.p.a.cesuit. People didn't work that way. If things weren't perfect, people went ahead regardless. That was why the Admiral Peary Admiral Peary had got to the Tau Ceti system-and why the Doctor hadn't. had got to the Tau Ceti system-and why the Doctor hadn't.

"Testing-one, two, three," Johnson said into his radio mike. "Do you read?"

"Read you five by five, scooter," a voice replied in his ear. "Do you read me?"

"Also five by five," Johnson said. "Ready to be launched."

"Roger." The outer door to the air lock opened. Johnson used the maneuvering jets to ease the scooter out of the lock and away from the s.h.i.+p. Only after he was safely clear of the Admiral Peary Admiral Peary did he fire up the rocket at the stern. It gave him a little weight, or acceleration's simulation of weight. He guided the scooter toward the closest Lizard s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. did he fire up the rocket at the stern. It gave him a little weight, or acceleration's simulation of weight. He guided the scooter toward the closest Lizard s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p.

"Calling the Horned Akiss, Horned Akiss," he said into his radio mike. An akiss was a legendary creature among the Race-close enough to a dragon for government work. Horned Akiss Horned Akiss made a pretty good name for a military s.p.a.cecraft, which that one was. "Repeat-calling the made a pretty good name for a military s.p.a.cecraft, which that one was. "Repeat-calling the Horned Akiss. Horned Akiss. This is the This is the Admiral Peary Admiral Peary's number-one scooter. Requesting permission to approach, as previously arranged."

"Permission granted." A Lizard's voice sounded in his ear. "Approach air lock number three. Repeat-number three." To guide him, red and yellow lights came on around the designated air lock. The Lizard continued, "Remember, you and your scooter will be searched before you are permitted into the s.h.i.+p."

"I understand," Johnson said. The males and females aboard the Lizards' s.h.i.+p weren't worried about weapons. If he tried a treacherous attack on the Horned Akiss, Horned Akiss, the rest of the Race's s.h.i.+ps would go after the the rest of the Race's s.h.i.+ps would go after the Admiral Peary. Admiral Peary. What they were worried about was ginger smuggling. What they were worried about was ginger smuggling.

The radar and computer would have told Johnson when to make his deceleration burn and for how long-if he'd paid any attention to them. He did it by eye and feel instead, and got what was for all practical purposes the same result: the scooter lay motionless relative to the air lock. When the outer door opened, he eased the scooter inside with the maneuvering jets, the same way as he'd brought it out of the Admiral Peary Admiral Peary's air lock.

Behind him, the outer door closed. The Lizard on the radio said, "You may now remove your s.p.a.cesuit for search." Before Johnson did, he checked to make sure the pressure in the air lock was adequate. The Lizard hadn't been lying to him. Even so, he was cautious as he broke the seal on his face plate, and ready to slam it shut again if things weren't as they seemed.

They were. The air the Race breathed had a smaller percentage of oxygen than the Earthly atmosphere, but the overall pressure was a little higher, so things evened out. He could smell the Lizards: a faint, slightly musky odor, not unpleasant. The Horned Akiss' Horned Akiss' crew probably didn't even know it was there. When he got back to the crew probably didn't even know it was there. When he got back to the Admiral Peary, Admiral Peary, he'd smell people the same way for a little while, till his nose got used to them again. he'd smell people the same way for a little while, till his nose got used to them again.

The inner airlock door opened. Two Lizards glided in, moving at least as smoothly weightless as humans did. "We greet you," one of them said. "Now-out of that suit." He added an emphatic cough.

"I obey," Johnson said. Under the suit, he wore a T-s.h.i.+rt and shorts. He could have gone naked, for all the Race cared. The Lizards in charge of security had long wands they used to sniff out ginger. One went over the s.p.a.cesuit, the other Johnson and the scooter. Only after no alarm lights came on did Johnson ask, "Are you satisfied now?"

"Moderately so," answered the one who'd examined him. "We will still X-ray the scooter, to make sure you have not secreted away some of the herb in the tubing. But, for now, you may enter the Horned Akiss. Horned Akiss. If you prove to be smuggling, you will not be allowed to leave." If you prove to be smuggling, you will not be allowed to leave."

"I thank you so much!" Johnson exclaimed, and used an emphatic cough. "And I greet you, too."

Both Lizards' mouths fell open in silent, toothy laughs. Johnson was laughing, too. He'd visited the Race's s.p.a.cecraft before. Their searches were always as thorough as this one. They didn't know whether the Admiral Peary Admiral Peary had ginger aboard. They didn't believe in taking chances, though. had ginger aboard. They didn't believe in taking chances, though.

Together, they said, "We greet you. We like you. If you are carrying the herb, we will like you too well to let you leave, as we have said. Otherwise, welcome."

Except for that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play? Johnson thought wryly. "I thank you so very much!" he repeated, tacking on another emphatic cough. For good measure, he also bent into the posture of respect. Johnson thought wryly. "I thank you so very much!" he repeated, tacking on another emphatic cough. For good measure, he also bent into the posture of respect.

That made the Lizards laugh again. "You are more sarcastic than you have any business being," one of them said.

"Oh, no." Johnson used the Race's negative gesture. "You are mistaken. This is normal for Big Uglies."

They laughed one more time. "No wonder your species is so much trouble," said the one who'd spoken before.

"No wonder at all," Johnson agreed. "Now, come on-take me to your leader." He did some laughing of his own. "I always wanted to say that."

Neither of the Lizards got the joke. But they understood irony as well as he did. Both of them a.s.sumed the posture of respect. They chorused, "It shall be done, superior Big Ugly!"

As a matter of fact, by their body paint and his own eagles, Johnson did outrank them. It was pretty d.a.m.n funny any which way. And they did did take him to their leader. take him to their leader.

The corridors in the Horned Akiss Horned Akiss were narrower and lower than those aboard the were narrower and lower than those aboard the Admiral Peary. Admiral Peary. Not surprising, not when Lizards were smaller than people. The handholds were of a slightly different shape and set at distances Johnson found oddly inconvenient. But he managed with minimal difficulty. The laws of the universe operated in the same way for the Lizards as they did for mankind. The differences between s.p.a.cecraft were in the details. The broad brush strokes remained the same. Not surprising, not when Lizards were smaller than people. The handholds were of a slightly different shape and set at distances Johnson found oddly inconvenient. But he managed with minimal difficulty. The laws of the universe operated in the same way for the Lizards as they did for mankind. The differences between s.p.a.cecraft were in the details. The broad brush strokes remained the same.

Medium s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p Commander Henrep's office even reminded Johnson of Lieutenant General Charles Healey's. It had the same sense of carefully constrained order. Henrep looked even more like a snapping turtle than Healey did, too, but he couldn't help it-he was hatched that way. Fixing Johnson with both eyes, he asked, "What is the real purpose of this visit?"

"Friends.h.i.+p," Johnson answered. "Nothing but friends.h.i.+p."

"An overrated concept," Henrep declared-yes, he did have a good deal in common with Healey.

Johnson used the negative gesture again. "I think you are mistaken, superior sir. The Race is going to have to learn to get along with wild Tosevites, and wild Tosevites are going to have to learn to get along with the Race. If we do not, we will destroy each other, and neither side would benefit from that."

Henrep remained unimpressed. "The Race can certainly destroy your species. Just as certainly, you cannot destroy us. You can, no doubt, ruin Tosev 3. You can, perhaps, damage Home. You cannot harm Halless 1 or Rabotev 2. The Empire would be wounded, yes. But even at the worst it would go on."

"That is the situation as we here know it now, yes," Johnson replied. "But how do you know my not-empire has not sent stars.h.i.+ps to Rabotev and Halless to attack their inhabited planets in case of trouble elsewhere between your kind and mine? Are you sure that is not so?"

By the way Henrep glowered, the only thing he was sure of was that he couldn't stand the human floating in front of him. His tailstump quivering with anger, he said, "That would be vicious and brutal beyond belief."

"So it would. So would destroying us," Johnson said. "We can do each other a lot of damage. That is why it would be better to live as friends."

"It would have been better to destroy you before you had any chance of threatening us," Henrep said angrily. He not only acted like Lieutenant General Healey, he thought like him, too.

"Maybe it would-though I would not agree with that," Johnson said. "But it is much too late to worry about that now. And so, superior sir . . . friends.h.i.+p."

A phone on Henrep's desk hissed before he could tell Johnson just where to put his friends.h.i.+p. The Lizard listened, spoke a quick agreement, and hung up. One of his eyes swung back to Johnson. "You have no ginger." He sounded almost as accusing as if the human had tried to smuggle twenty tons of the herb.

"I could have told you that. I did did tell you that." tell you that."

"So you did. But you are a Big Ugly. That makes you a liar until proved otherwise." Henrep's second eye turret moved toward Johnson. "How long do you think your slow, homely excuse for a s.h.i.+p could survive if we really went after it?"

"Long enough to smash up your planet, superior sir." Johnson turned what should have been a t.i.tle of respect into one of contempt. "And if you do not believe me, you are welcome to find out for yourself."

Henrep sputtered like a leaky pot with a tight lid over a hot fire. Johnson swallowed a sigh. So much for friends.h.i.+p, So much for friends.h.i.+p, he thought. he thought.

Jonathan Yeager held up a hand. The guide waggled an eye turret in his direction to tell him he might speak. He asked, "How old did you say that building back there was?"

"Why did you not pay closer attention when I spoke before?" Trir snapped.

"Well, excuse my ignorance," Jonathan said.

In English, Karen said, "What's her problem? She's supposed to be telling us what's what. That's her job. If we want to find out more, she should be happy."

"Beats me," Jonathan said, also in English.

That didn't seem to suit Trir, either. The guide said, "Why do you not speak a language a civilized person can understand?"

"Maybe I will," Jonathan answered, returning to the Race's tongue, "when I see you acting like a civilized person."

Trir sputtered and hissed indignantly. "That's telling her," Tom de la Rosa said in English. His wife nodded.

Karen said, "I think we all need to behave ourselves better." She used the language of the Race, and looked right at Trir.

The guide made a gesture Jonathan had not seen before, one obviously full of annoyance. "You Big Uglies have to be the most foolish species ever to imagine itself intelligent," she said. "Do you not even understand what is going on around you?"

All the humans exchanged confused looks. "It could be that we do not," Jonathan said. "Perhaps you would be generous enough to explain the situation-whatever the situation is-to us?"

That produced an exasperated snort from Trir. "That such things should be necessary . . ." she muttered, and then, reluctantly, used the affirmative gesture. "Oh, very well. There does seem to be no help for it. Can you not sense that, along with other females in this region, I am approaching the mating season? This is its effect on my behavior. Before long, the males' scent receptors will start noting our pheromones, and then life will be . . . hectic for a little while."

"Oh," Jonathan said. The Lizards went through mating seasons on Earth, too, but there were so many ginger-tasters there that the rhythm of their life wasn't so well defined as it was here on Home. He went on, "Apologies. I did not know it. Your pheromones mean nothing to us, you know."

"Tosevites," Trir said, more to herself, he judged, than to him. She gathered herself. "Well, that is is the situation. If you cannot adjust to it, do not blame me." the situation. If you cannot adjust to it, do not blame me."

She still sounded far more irritable than Lizards usually did. Jonathan said, "We will try to adjust. Perhaps you should do the same, if that is possible for you."

"Of course it is possible." Trir sounded furious. "How dare you presume it is anything but possible?"

"Well, if it is, suppose you tell me once more how old that building back there is," Jonathan said.

"If you had been listening-" But the Lizard caught herself. "Oh, very well, since you insist. It was built in the reign of the 29th Emperor Rekrap, more than seven thousand years ago-fairly recently, then."

"Fairly recently," Jonathan echoed. "Oh, yes, superior female. Truth." Seven thousand of the Race's years were about thirty-five hundred of Earth's. So that building wasn't older than the Pyramids. It was about the same age as Stonehenge. Old as the hills as far as mankind was concerned. Nothing special, not to the Race.

Tom de la Rosa asked, "What are the oldest buildings in this city?"

"Here in Sitneff?" Trir said. "Most of the construction here dates from modern times. This is a region with some seismic activity-not a lot, but some. Few of the structures here go back much beyond twenty-five thousand years."

All the humans started to laugh. Frank Coffey said, "Even dividing by two, that's not what I call modern." He spoke in English, but tacked on an emphatic cough just the same.

And he wasn't wrong. What had people been doing 12,500 years ago? Hunting and gathering-that was it. They were just starting to filter down into the Americas. The latest high-tech weapons system was the bow and arrow. They might have domesticated the dog. On the other hand, they might not have, too. No one on Earth knew how to plant a crop or read or write or get any kind of metal out of a rock.

And the Race? The Race, by then, had already conquered the Rabotevs. Lizards were living on Epsilon Eridani 2 as well as Tau Ceti 2. Life here on Home had changed only in details, in refinements, since then.

They're still doing the same things they did back then, and doing them the same old way, pretty much, Jonathan thought. Jonathan thought. Us? We got from nowhere to here, and we got here under our own power. Us? We got from nowhere to here, and we got here under our own power.

Trir looked at things differently. "It is because rebuilding is sometimes necessary in this part of the world that Sitneff enjoys so few traditions. It is part of the present but, unfortunately, not really part of the past." As the humans laughed again, the guide's eye turrets swung from one of them to the next. "Do I see that you are dubious about what I have said?"

Laughing still, Jonathan said, "Well, superior female, it all depends on what you mean by the past. Back on Tosev 3, our whole recorded history is only about ten thousands of your years old."

That made Trir's mouth drop open in a laugh of her own. "How very curious," she said. "Perhaps that accounts for some of your semibarbarous behavior."

"Maybe it does," Jonathan said. He thought Trir's rudeness was at least semibarbarous, but he was willing to let it pa.s.s. This wasn't his planet, after all.

Linda de la Rosa saw things differently. "What sort of behavior do you call it when you insult the guests you are supposed to be guiding? We did not need nearly as long as you did to learn to travel among the stars, and we deserve all proper respect for that." She finished with an emphatic cough.

Trir's nict.i.tating membranes flicked back and forth across her eyes: a gesture of complete astonishment. "How dare you speak to me that way?" she demanded.

"I speak to you as one equal to another, as one equal telling another she has shown bad manners," Linda de la Rosa answered. "If you do not care for that, behave better. You will not have the problem any more in that case, I promise you."

"How can you be so insolent?" Trir's tailstump quivered furiously.

"Maybe I am a semibarbarian, as you say. Maybe I just recognize one when I hear one," Linda told her.

That didn't make Trir any happier. In tones colder than the weather even at Home's South Pole, she said, "I think it would be an excellent idea to return to your lodgings now. I also think it would be an excellent idea to furnish you with a new guide, one more tolerant of your . . . vagaries."

They walked back to the hotel in tense silence. Trir said nothing about any of the buildings they pa.s.sed. The Race might have signed its Declaration of Independence in one and its Const.i.tution in the next. If it had, the humans heard not a word about it. The buildings remained no more than piles of stone and concrete. Whatever had happened in them in days gone by, whatever might be happening in them now, would remain forever mysterious-at least if the humans had to find out from Trir.

And things did not improve once Jonathan and the rest of the Americans got back to the hotel. A sort of tension was in the air. Trir was far from the only snappy, peevish Lizard Jonathan saw. The scaly crests between the eyes of males, crests that normally lay flat, began to come up in display.

"n.o.body's going to want to pay any attention to us for the next few weeks," Jonathan said to Karen after they went up to their room.

She nodded. "Sure does look that way, doesn't it? They aren't going to pay attention to anything but s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g themselves silly."

"Which is what they always say we do," Jonathan added. With any luck at all, the Lizards snooping and translating would be embarra.s.sed-if the jamming let their bugs pick up anything. "Either they don't know us as well as they think they do, or they don't know themselves as well as they think they do."

"Maybe," Karen answered. "Or maybe they just took their data from you when you were in your twenties."

"Ha!" Jonathan said. "Don't I wis.h.!.+" He paused, then added, "What I really wish is that I could do half now of what I did then. Of course, there's not a guy my age who wouldn't say that."

"Men," Karen said, not altogether unkindly. "You just have to make up in technique what you lose in, ah, enthusiasm."

"Is that what it is?" Jonathan said. She nodded. In an experimental way, he stepped toward her. The experiment proved successful enough that, after a little while, they lay down on the sleeping mat together. Some time after that, he asked, "Well, did I?"

"Did you what?" Karen's voice was lazy.

"Make up in technique what I've lost in enthusiasm?"

She poked him in the ribs. "Well, what do you think? Besides, you seemed enthusiastic enough to me."

"Good."

Later, after they were both dressed again, Karen remarked, "The funny thing is, we talk about s.e.x even more than we do it. The Lizards?" She shook her head. "They talk about it even less than they do it. It's like they try to forget about mating season when it isn't happening."

"h.e.l.l, they do do forget about it when it isn't happening," Jonathan said. "If something had happened to the colonization fleet so it never got to Earth, the males from the conquest fleet wouldn't have cared if they never mated again, poor b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. Without the pheromones, it just doesn't matter to them." forget about it when it isn't happening," Jonathan said. "If something had happened to the colonization fleet so it never got to Earth, the males from the conquest fleet wouldn't have cared if they never mated again, poor b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. Without the pheromones, it just doesn't matter to them."

"That isn't quite what I meant. They don't write novels about what goes on during mating season, or plays, or songs, or much of anything. They don't care, not the way we do."

Jonathan thought that over. Slowly, he said, "When they're not in the mating season, they don't care about s.e.x at all." He held up a hasty hand. "Yes, I know you just said that. I wasn't done. When they are are in the season, they don't care about anything else. They're too busy doing it to want to write about it or sing about it." in the season, they don't care about anything else. They're too busy doing it to want to write about it or sing about it."

"Maybe," Karen said.

Jonathan suddenly laughed. She sent him a quizzical look. He said, "Back on Earth, if they keep using ginger the way they were, they really will get to where they're a little h.o.r.n.y all the time, the way we are. I wonder if they will start writing about it then back there, and what the Lizards here on Home will think of them if they do."

"Probably that they're a bunch of perverts," Karen said. "They already think that about us."

"Yeah, I know, you old pervert, you," Jonathan said. "But we have fun."

Atvar tried to keep his mind on the discussion. Sam Yeager had presented some serious proposals on ways in which the Race and the wild Big Uglies could hope to keep the peace, both back on Tosev 3 and in the solar systems that made up the Empire. He'd also pointed out the obvious once more: now that the Big Uglies had interstellar travel of their own, trade with the Empire would take on a new footing. The Race would have to start taking steps to accommodate Tosevite stars.h.i.+ps.