Colonization_ Down To Earth Part 4

Before he could ask, a Big Ugly burst from the greenery and rushed toward the vehicle. He was, inevitably, shouting "Allahu akbar!" "Allahu akbar!" He carried in his right hand a bottle with a flaming wick. Gorppet had seen those in the SSSR. They were full of petroleum distillates, and could easily set even a landcruiser afire. He carried in his right hand a bottle with a flaming wick. Gorppet had seen those in the SSSR. They were full of petroleum distillates, and could easily set even a landcruiser afire.

Gorppet sprayed the Tosevite with bullets. One of them struck the bottle. It burst and exploded into flame, which caught on the Big Ugly's robes and his flesh. He would have been in greater torment still had Gorppet's bullets-and probably those of other males as well-not toppled him and sent him quickly on the road to death.

Then a grenade flew out of the plants and exploded not far from Gorppet's vehicle. He fired in the direction from which it had come, but couldn't tell whether he'd hit the thrower. Another grenade burst on the far side of the vehicle. "We are surrounded!" Betvoss shouted in alarm.

If Betvoss could see it, it should have been obvious to anyone. Gorppet yelled into the intercom: "We had better get out of here while we still can!"

"I have no orders," the driver answered, which struck Gorppet as not being nearly reason enough to stay. Before he could say as much, the other male added, "And I will not abandon my comrades without orders."

That, unfortunately, did make sense to Gorppet. He spotted a shape moving in among the greenery and fired at it. Even through the mechanized combat vehicle's armor, he heard the shriek the Big Ugly let out. He snarled in savage satisfaction.

The vehicle did begin to back away then, which presumably meant the ones behind it in the column had already started retreating. The machine didn't have to go around any burning hulks, for which Gorppet let out a sigh of relief. Smoke dischargers helped s.h.i.+eld the column from the Tosevites' eyes. Before long, all the combat vehicles were speeding northwest along the road to As Samawan. Gorppet wasn't the least bit unhappy to leave that marauding band of Big Uglies behind.

"Praise the spirits of Emperors past, that was not too expensive, anyhow," Betvoss said. "All they made us do was change our route."

"Now we have to hope they have not mined the highway to As Samawan," Gorppet said. Betvoss laughed, but the squad leader went on, "I was not joking. They have forced us to do something we did not plan to do. That means we are moving to their plan, not to our own. They will have something waiting for us."

Again, he proved right. The column had not gone much farther before a mine exploded under the lead combat vehicle. Fortunately, it did no more than blow off a track. The vehicle's crew scrambled out, made hasty repairs, with soldiers and the guns of the rest of the column protecting them, and got moving again. All things considered, it was, as Betvoss had said, an inexpensive journey.

As a shuttlecraft pilot, Nesseref was one of the first females revived from the colonization fleet. That meant she had more experience with Big Uglies than most of the other colonists in the new town outside Jezow, Poland. Despite that experience, she admitted-indeed, she proclaimed, whenever she got the chance-she did not understand the way the minds of the natives of Tosev 3 worked.

"Superior sir, when I began coming into this city, I could not imagine why you treated the Tosevites with such restraint," she told Bunim, the regional subadministrator based in Lodz. "Now, having spent a while on the surface of the planet, I begin to see: they are all of them addled, and many of them heavily armed. I can conceive no more appalling combination."

The male from the conquest fleet answered, "You may think you are joking, Shuttlecraft Pilot, but that is the problem facing the Race all over Tosev 3. Poland is merely a microcosm of the planet as a whole."

"In no way was I joking, superior sir," Nesseref replied. "The Poles are heavily armed. They hate the Jews, the Deutsche, us, and the Russkis, in that order. The Jews are also heavily armed. They hate the Deutsche, the Poles, the Russkis, and us, in that order. The Deutsche, off to the west, hate the Jews, us, the Russkis, and the Poles, in that order. The Russkis, off to the east, hate the Deutsche, us, the Jews, and the Poles, in that order. The Deutsche and the Russkis, of course, are even more heavily armed than the Jews and Poles. Do I have it all straight?"

"More or less," Bunim said. "You will notice, however, that in your list each group of Big Uglies hates some other group of Big Uglies more than it hates us. That is what makes our continued administration of this region possible."

"Yes, I understand as much," Nesseref said. "But I also notice that each group of Big Uglies does hate us. This strikes me as ungrateful on their part, but seems to be so."

"Truth," Bunim agreed. "That is what makes our continued administration of this region difficult. That is what makes our continued administration of this whole planet difficult. Each Tosevite faction-and there are tens upon tens of them-reckons itself superior to all the others. Each resents being administered by anyone but one of its own members. Each also resents being administered by anyone not of the Tosevite species. And, with so many explosive-metal bombs on this planet and orbiting it, we must be cautious in our actions lest we touch off a catastrophe."

"Madness," Nesseref said. "Utter madness."

"Oh, indeed." Bunim used an emphatic cough to show just how much madness he thought it was. "But it is not madness we can afford to disregard. Understanding that fact has often come hard to males and females of the colonization fleet. You show a better grasp of it than most."

"I thank you, Regional Subadministrator," Nesseref said. "Difficulties in finding land for the shuttlecraft port and in dealing with Big Ugly laborers in the construction process have proved most educational."

"I can see how they would. Everything on Tosev 3 is educational, although some of the lessons are those we would rather not learn." Bunim paused. "And you are also acquainted with the Jew Anielewicz, are you not?"

"Yes, superior sir," Nesseref answered. She also paused before continuing, "For a Big Ugly, he is quite likable." She wondered how Bunim would take that; he certainly seemed none too fond of any of the Tosevites whose territory he helped govern.

To her surprise, the regional subadministrator said, "Truth." But Bunim went on, "He is very clever, he is very capable, he is very dangerous. He plays us off against the Deutsche, the Poles, and the Russkis, and plays those groups off against one another. His own group should be the weakest among them, but I am not nearly sure it is-and if it is not, that is largely thanks to his abilities."

"Many Tosevites, I gather, are able," Nesseref said. "Your experience is greater than mine, but I would say as many Tosevites are as able as are members of the Race."

"Yes, I would say that is probably a truth," Bunim agreed. "We would have an easier time on this planet were it a falsehood." He let out a long, heartfelt sigh.

"No doubt," Nesseref said. "Many Big Uglies are able, as I say. But few are, or can make themselves be, congenial to us. Anielewicz is one of those who can. I count him a friend of sorts, even if he is not of our species-certainly more of a friend than an accursed male who sought to give me ginger to induce me to mate with him."

"I sometimes think ginger is the revenge Tosev 3 is taking on the Race for our efforts to bring this world into the Empire," Bunim said wearily. "In some ways, the herb causes us more trouble than the Big Uglies do."

"Truth," Nesseref said, with an emphatic cough. She'd tried ginger once herself, before the Race fully understood what it did to females. She'd gone straight into her season, of course, and mated with a couple of Bunim's sentries. Only luck that she hadn't laid a clutch of eggs afterwards. And only luck-luck and a strong, strong will-that the one taste hadn't led to addiction, as it had for so many males and females.

Bunim went on, "I also note that, however congenial you may find Anielewicz, by no means do all of his fellow Tosevites share your opinion. He was recently the target of an a.s.sa.s.sination attempt by one of the Big Ugly groupings with no great use for Jews. I am not certain which, but there is no shortage of such groups. You have shown you understand as much."

"Yes." Nesseref did her best to hold in surprise and dismay. Murder, especially political murder, was rare among the Race. She supposed she shouldn't have been shocked to learn it was otherwise here on Tosev 3, but she was. "An attempt, you say, superior sir? Was he injured?"

"No. Apparently fearing someone might be seeking to attack him, he dropped to the floor an instant before the a.s.sailant fired through the door of his flat. Whoever that a.s.sailant was, he escaped."

"I am relieved to hear Anielewicz was not harmed," Nesseref said.

"So was I," the regional subadministrator answered. "You cannot imagine the chaos into which a successful a.s.sa.s.sination would have thrown this area. I very likely cannot imagine it, either, and I am glad I do not have to."

He cared only about the politics involved, not about Anielewicz as an individual. Nesseref supposed she understood that. Bunim would have to go on dealing with whoever Anielewicz's successor proved to be had the Jew been killed. Still, the att.i.tude saddened her. She returned to her own immediate business: "I do thank you for expediting inspections of the liquid-hydrogen storage system at the shuttlecraft port. An accident would be unfortunate."

"Truth." Bunim looked at her sidelong. "You have a gift for understatement, Shuttlecraft Pilot."

"I thank you," Nesseref answered. "I would be less concerned had the Race done all the construction. But, even with the Tosevites working to our specifications, I want every possible a.s.surance that they did the job properly."

"I understand. I shall see to it." Bunim turned one eye turret toward a chronometer. "And now, if you will excuse me, I also have other things to see to...."

"Of course, superior sir." Nesseref left Bunim's office, and also left the building housing it. Having been in the hands of the Race since shortly after the arrival of the conquest fleet, it suited her kind about as well as a building originally put up by Big Uglies could. When she went outside, into the cold of the Bialut Market Square, she found herself back in a different world.

Even Tosevites had to wear layer upon layer of wrappings to protect themselves from their own planet's weather. That didn't deter them from gathering in large numbers to buy and sell. Foods of all sorts were on display (no, almost all sorts, for this was a market full of Jews, and so held no pork, which was to Nesseref's way of thinking most regrettable). So were more of the Big Uglies' wrappings. So were pots and pans and plates and the curious implements the Tosevites used to feed themselves.

And so were a good many items obviously manufactured by the Race. Nesseref wondered how they'd got there. She wouldn't have been the least bit surprised to learn it was through no legitimate means. The window in Bunim's office overlooked the market square. She wondered if the regional subadministrator or his subordinates paid any attention to the commerce the Big Uglies were conducting right under their snouts. Then she wondered if the Tosevites quietly paid some of those subordinates-with ginger, say-to turn their eye turrets in a different direction. She wouldn't have been surprised about that, either.

Big Uglies were more voluble than males and females of the Race. They shouted and whined and gesticulated and generally acted as if the world would come to an end if bargains didn't come out exactly the way they wanted them. Their frantic eagerness would have impressed and probably influenced Nesseref. The Tosevites against whom they were d.i.c.kering, though, were used to such ploys, and took no notice of them-or else they too were shouting and whining and gesticulating.

Someone-a Big Ugly, by the timbre and mushy accent-called her name. She swung an eye turret in the direction from which the sound had struck her hearing diaphragm, and saw a Tosevite approaching, waving as he-she? no, he, by the wrappings and the voice-drew near. A little more slowly than she should have, she recognized him. "I greet you, Mordechai Anielewicz," she said, annoyed he'd seen and known her first.

"I greet you, Shuttlecraft Pilot," the Big Ugly said, extending his right hand in the greeting gesture common among his kind. Nesseref took it. His fingers, though large, felt soft and fleshy against hers. They also felt cool; her body temperature was a couple of hundredths higher than his. Speaking the language of the Race pretty well for one of his kind, he went on, "I hope you are well?"

"Well enough, I thank you, though I do not much care for the cold and damp. I am glad spring is coming," Nesseref replied. She wagged the eye turret with which she was looking at him, as she might have done to commiserate with one of her own kind. "I have heard from the regional subadministrator that you are having a difficult time of it."

"Why, no, the pains are no worse than-" Anielewicz caught himself. "Oh. You must mean the male with the gun. He missed me. He has not returned since. I do not worry about him... too much." His hand dropped to the b.u.t.t of the pistol he wore on his hip.

"Who would wish to kill you?" Nesseref asked.

The Big Ugly's mouth twisted in the gesture Nesseref had come to a.s.sociate with amus.e.m.e.nt, though she didn't understand why the circ.u.mstances should amuse him. "Who?" he said. "The Deutsche, the Poles, the Russkis, perhaps, and perhaps also the regional subadministrator."

"Bunim?" Nesseref made the negative hand gesture. "Impossible! The Race does not do such things. Besides, he would have mentioned it to me. He spoke of its happening through some agency other than his own."

"He would not admit to it," Anielewicz said. "Even if he arranged to have it done, he would not admit it, not to anyone who did not have to know of it."

"Why not?" Again, Nesseref was puzzled.

Again, the Tosevite smiled. Again, the shuttlecraft pilot could not see any reason to show amus.e.m.e.nt. As if speaking to a hatchling barely old enough to understand words, Mordechai Anielewicz replied, "Because if he arranged to have it done, and if I found out he had arranged it, I would probably try to kill him in retaliation, and he knows it."

He spoke, as far as Nesseref could judge, quite calmly. She reckoned him her friend, as far as she could across the lines of species. But he'd just shown her how alien he was. Her s.h.i.+ver had nothing to do with the chilly weather.

Mordechai Anielewicz could tell he'd horrified Nesseref. He didn't really think Bunim had tried to a.s.sa.s.sinate him. Had Bunim done so, he wasn't sure he would try to take revenge by killing the regional subadministrator. Murdering a prominent Lizard was the best way he could think of to land the Jews of Poland in serious trouble. Of course, if what he said got back to Bunim, it might keep the regional subadministrator from coming up with any bright ideas. He hoped it would.

"And how is your explosive-metal bomb?" Nesseref asked him casually.

Not for the first time, he wished he'd never mentioned the bomb to her. And now, instead of displaying his amus.e.m.e.nt, he had to hide it. The shuttlecraft pilot was trying to get information out of him the same way he was trying to give it to her. He answered, "It is very well, thank you. And how is yours?"

"I have none, as you know perfectly well," Nesseref said. "All I have to worry about is a great deal of liquid hydrogen."

Back before the invasions of first the n.a.z.is and then the Lizards forced him into war and politics, Anielewicz had studied engineering. He whistled respectfully; he knew a little something about the kinds of problems he might be facing. And, of course, when he thought of hydrogen, he thought of the Hindenburg Hindenburg; the newsreel footage was still vivid in his mind after more than a quarter of a century. The Lizards were a lot more careful than the Germans ever dreamt of being-the Lizards were, in a word, inhumanly careful-but still... .

"How do you make that noise?" Nesseref asked. "I have heard other Tosevites do it, but I cannot see how."

"What, whistling?" Mordechai asked. The key word came out in Yiddish; if it existed in the Lizards' language, he didn't know it. He whistled a few bars. Nesseref made the affirmative hand gesture. He said, "You shape your lips this way...." He started to pucker, then stopped. "Oh."

Once examined, the problem was simple. Nesseref couldn't pucker. Her face didn't work that way. She didn't even really have lips, only hard edges to her mouth. She could no more whistle than Anielewicz could perfectly produce all the hisses and pops and sneezing noises that went into her language. She realized that at about the same time he did, and let her mouth fall open in a laugh. "I see now," she said. "It is impossible for one of my kind."

"I fear that is truth," Anielewicz agreed. "I also fear I must shop now, or my wife"-another Yiddish word, another concept missing from the language of the Race-"will be very unhappy with me." He used an emphatic cough to show just how unhappy Bertha would be.

"Farewell, then," Nesseref told him. "I return to my new town. Perhaps you will visit me there one day."

"I thank you. I would like that." Mordechai meant it. Regardless of what they thought of the weather, lots of Lizards were colonizing Poland. He was very curious about how they lived.

But, as Nesseref went about her business, Anielewicz realized he had to go about his. Bertha would indeed be unhappy if he came home without the things she'd sent him to buy. Cabbage was easy. Several vendors were selling it; he had only to choose the one with the best price. Potatoes didn't prove any great problem, either. And he got a deal on onions that would make his wife smile.

Eggs, now... He'd expected eggs to be the hard part of the shopping, and they were. You could always count on plenty of people having vegetables for sale. Ever since the n.a.z.is had been driven out of Poland, there had been enough vegetables to go around. And vegetables, or a lot of them, stayed good for weeks or months at a time.

None of that held true for eggs. You never could tell how many would be on sale when you went to the market square, or what sort of prices the vendors would demand. Today, only a couple of peasant grandmothers, scarves around their heads against the winter cold, displayed baskets of eggs.

Radiating charm, Anielewicz went up to one of them. "h.e.l.lo, there," he said cheerfully. He spoke Polish as readily as Yiddish, as did most Jews hereabouts. Unlike a lot of them, he also looked more Polish than Jewish, having a broad face, fair skin, and light brown, almost blond, hair. Sometimes his looks helped him when he was dealing with Poles.

Not today. The old lady with the eggs looked him up and down as if he'd just crawled out of the gutter. "h.e.l.lo, Jew," she said flatly.

Well, few goyim goyim came to buy at the Bialut Market Square. During the n.a.z.i occupation, it had been the chief market of the Lodz ghetto. The ghetto was gone, but this remained the Jewish part of town. Mordechai gathered himself. If she was going to play tough, he could do the same. Pointing to the eggs, he said, "How much for half a dozen of those sad little things?" came to buy at the Bialut Market Square. During the n.a.z.i occupation, it had been the chief market of the Lodz ghetto. The ghetto was gone, but this remained the Jewish part of town. Mordechai gathered himself. If she was going to play tough, he could do the same. Pointing to the eggs, he said, "How much for half a dozen of those sad little things?"

"Two zlotys apiece," the Polish woman said, sounding as calm and self-a.s.sured as if that weren't highway robbery.

"What?" Anielewicz yelped. "That's not selling. That's stealing, is what it is."

"You don't want them, you don't have to pay," the woman answered. "Ewa over there, she's charging two and a half, but she says hers are bigger eggs. You go on over and see if you can find any difference."

"It's still stealing," Mordechai said, and it was-even two zlotys was close to twice the going rate.

"Feed's gone up," the Polish woman said with a shrug. "If you think I'm going to sell at a loss, you're meshuggeh." meshuggeh." Where he stuck to Polish, she threw in a Yiddish word with malice aforethought. A moment later, she slyly added, "And I know you Jews aren't crazy that way." Where he stuck to Polish, she threw in a Yiddish word with malice aforethought. A moment later, she slyly added, "And I know you Jews aren't crazy that way."

"What are you feeding your miserable chickens, anyhow? Caviar and champagne?" Anielewicz shot back. "Bread's up a couple of groschen, but not that much. I I think you're out for some quick profit." think you're out for some quick profit."

Her eyes might have been cut from gray ice. "I think if you don't want my eggs, you can go away and let someone who does want them have a look."

Dammit, he did want the eggs. He just didn't want to pay so much for them. Bertha would pitch a fit; then she'd make disparaging noises about the uselessness of sending a mere man to the market square. Mordechai was, or thought he was, a competent shopper in his own right. "I'll give you nine zlotys for half a dozen," he said.

For a bad moment, he thought the egg seller wouldn't even deign to haggle with him. But she did. He ended up buying the eggs for ten zlotys forty groschen, and won the privilege of picking them himself. It wasn't a victory-he couldn't pretend it was, no matter how hard he tried-but it was something less than a crus.h.i.+ng defeat.

Weighed down by groceries, he started south on Zgierska Street, then turned right onto Lutomierska; his flat wasn't far from the fire station on that street. The backs of his legs pained him as he walked. His arms felt as if he were carrying sacks of lead, not vegetables and eggs.

Scowling, he kept on. He'd never been quite right after inhaling German nerve gas half a lifetime before. At that, he'd got off lucky. Ludmila Jager-Ludmila Gorbunova, she'd been then-was far more crippled than he, while the gas had helped bring Heinrich Jager to an early grave. Anielewicz found that dreadfully unfair; were it not for the German panzer colonel, an explosive-metal bomb would have blown Lodz off the face of the earth, and probably would have blown up the then-fragile truce between humans and Lizards.

Anielewicz's younger son was named Heinrich. There was a stretch of several years when he would either have laughed or reached for a rifle had anyone suggested he might name a child after a Wehrmacht Wehrmacht officer. officer.

Panting, he fought his way up the stairs to his flat. He paused in the hail to catch his breath, gathering himself so Bertha wouldn't worry, before he went inside. He also paused to examine the new door, after the would-be a.s.sa.s.sin put a submachine-gun magazine through the old one, it had become too thoroughly ventilated to be worth much. The flat also had new windows.

When he did go inside, the look on his wife's face said he hadn't paused long enough. "It must be bothering you today," Bertha Anielewicz said.

"Not too bad," Mordechai insisted. If she believed it, maybe he would, too. "And I did pretty well at the market." That won a smile from his wife. She wasn't pretty in any conventional sense of the word, but she turned beautiful when a smile lit up her face. Then, of course, she wanted details.

When he gave them to her, the smile disappeared. He'd known it would. "That's robbery!" she exclaimed.

"I know," he said. "It would have been worse robbery if I hadn't haggled hard. We did need the eggs."

"We needed the money, too," Bertha said mournfully. Then she shrugged. "Well, it's done, and the eggs do look good." Her smile returned. He smiled back, knowing full well she was letting him down easy.

Vyacheslav Molotov was not happy with the budget projections for the upcoming Five Year Plan. Unfortunately, the parts about which he was least happy had to do with the money allocated for the Red Army. Since Marshal Zhukov had rescued him from NKVD headquarters after Lavrenti Beria's coup failed, he couldn't wield a red pencil so vigorously as he would have liked. He couldn't wield one at all, in fact. If he made Zhukov unhappy with him, a Red Army-led coup would surely succeed.

Behind the expressionless mask of his face, he was scowling. After Zhukov got all the funds he wanted, the Red Army would in essence be running the Soviet State with or without a coup. Were Zhukov a little less deferential to Party authority, that would be obvious already.

The intercom buzzed. Molotov answered it with a sense of relief, though he showed no more of that than of his inner scowl. "Yes?" he asked.

"Comrade General Secretary, David Nussboym is here for his appointment," his secretary answered.

Molotov glanced at the clock on the wall of his Kremlin office. It was precisely ten o'clock. Few Russians would have been so punctual, but the NKVD man had been born and raised in Poland. "Send him in, Pyotr Maksimovich," Molotov said. Dealing with Nussboym would mean he didn't have to deal with-or not deal with-the budget for a while. Putting things off didn't make them better. Molotov knew that. But nothing he dared do to the Five Year Plan budget would make it better, either.

In came David Nussboym: a skinny, nondescript, middle-aged Jew. "Good day, Comrade General Secretary," he said in Polish-flavored Russian, every word accented on the next-to-last syllable whether the stress belonged there or not.

"Good day, David Aronovich," Molotov answered. "Take a seat; help yourself to tea from the samovar if you care to."