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diff --git a/30474.txt b/30474.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d614413 --- /dev/null +++ b/30474.txt @@ -0,0 +1,676 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of They Also Serve, by Donald E. Westlake + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: They Also Serve + +Author: Donald E. Westlake + +Release Date: November 14, 2009 [EBook #30474] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEY ALSO SERVE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Barbara Tozier and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction + September 1961. Extensive research did not uncover any + evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was + renewed. + + + + +[Illustration] + +THEY ALSO SERVE + +By DONALD E. WESTLAKE + +Illustrated by Douglas + + _Why should people hate vultures? After all, a vulture never + kills anyone..._ + + +The launch carrying the mail, supplies and replacements eased slowly +in toward the base, keeping the bulk of the Moon between itself and +Earth. Captain Ebor, seated at the controls, guided the ship to the +rocky uneven ground with the easy carelessness of long practice, then +cut the drive, got to his walking tentacles, and stretched. Donning +his spacesuit, he left the ship to go over to the dome and meet +Darquelnoy, the base commander. + +An open ground-car was waiting for him beside the ship. The driver, +encased in his spacesuit, crossed tentacles in a sloppy salute, and +Ebor returned the gesture quite as sloppily. Here on the periphery, +cast formalities were all but dispensed with. + +Ebor stood for a moment and watched the unloading. The cargo crew, +used to working in spacesuits, had one truck already half full. The +replacements, unused to spacesuits and, in addition, awed and a bit +startled by the bleakness of this satellite, were moving awkwardly +down the ramp. + +Satisfied that the unloading was proceeding smoothly, Ebor climbed +aboard the ground-car, awkward in his suit, and settled back heavily +in the seat to try to get used to gravity again. The gravity of this +Moon was slight, of course--barely one-sixth the gravity of the Home +World or most of the colonies--but it still took getting used to, +after a long trip in free-fall. + +The driver sat at the controls, and the car jerked into motion. Ebor, +looking up, noticed for the first time that the dome wasn't there any +more. The main dome, housing the staff and equipment of the base, just +wasn't there. + +And the driver, he now saw, was aiming the car toward the nearby +crater wall. Extending two of his eyes till they almost touched the +face-plate of his helmet, he could see activity at the base of the +crater wall, and what looked like an air-lock entrance. He wondered +what had caused the change, which had obviously been done at top +speed. The last time he'd been here, not very long ago, the dome had +still been intact, and there had been no hint of any impending move +underground. + +The driver steered the car into the open air lock, and they waited +until the first cargo truck had lumbered in after them. Then the outer +door closed, the pumps were turned on, and in a minute the red light +flashed over the inner door. Ebor removed the spacesuit gratefully, +left it in the car, and walked clumsily through the inner door into +the new base. + +A good job had been done on it, for all the speed. Rooms and corridors +has been melted out of the rock, the floors had been carpeted, the +walls painted, and the ceiling lined with light panels. All of the +furnishings had been transferred here from the original dome, and the +result looked, on the whole, quite livable. As livable as the dome had +been, at least. + +But the base commander, Darquelnoy, waiting for his old friend Ebor +near the inner door of the lock, looked anything but happy with the +arrangement. At Ebor's entrance he raised a limp tentacle in weary +greeting and said, "Come in, my friend, come in. Tell me the new jokes +from home. I could use some cheering up." + +"None worth telling," said Ebor. He looked around. "What's happened +here?" he asked. "Why've you gone underground? Why do you need +cheering up?" + +Darquelnoy clicked his eyes in despair. "Those _things_!" he cried. +"Those annoying little creatures on that blasted planet up there!" + +Ebor repressed an amused ripple. He knew Darquelnoy well enough to +know that the commander invariably overstated things. "What've they +been up to, Dar?" he asked. "Come on, you can tell me over a hot cup +of restno." + +"I've been practically living on the stuff for the last two dren," +said Darquelnoy hopelessly. "Well, I suppose another cup won't kill +me. Come on to my quarters." + +"I've worked up a fine thirst on the trip," Ebor told him. + + * * * * * + +The two walked down the long corridor together and Ebor said, "Well? +What happened?" + +"They came here," Darquelnoy told him simply. At Ebor's shocked look, +he rippled in wan amusement and said, "Oh, it wasn't as bad as it +might have been, I suppose. It was just that we had to rush around so +frantically, unloading and dismantling the dome, getting this place +ready--" + +"What do you mean, they _came_ here?" demanded Ebor. + +"They are absolutely the worst creatures for secrecy in the entire +galaxy!" exclaimed Darquelnoy in irritation. "Absolutely the worst." + +"Then you've picked up at least one of their habits," Ebor told him. +"Now stop talking in circles and tell me what happened." + +"They built a spaceship, is the long and the short of it," Darquelnoy +answered. + +Ebor stopped in astonishment. "No!" + +"Don't tell me no!" cried Darquelnoy. "I _saw_ it!" He was obviously +at his wit's end. + +"It's unbelievable," said Ebor. + +"I know," said Darquelnoy. He led the way into his quarters, motioned +Ebor to a perch, and rang for his orderly. "It was just a little +remote-controlled apparatus, of course," he said. "The fledgling +attempt, you know. But it circled this Moon here, busily taking +pictures, and went right back to the planet again, giving us all a +terrible fright. There hadn't been the slightest indication they were +planning anything _that_ spectacular." + +"None?" asked Ebor. "Not a hint?" + +"Oh, they've been boasting about doing some such thing for ages," +Darquelnoy told him. "But there was never any indication that they +were finally serious about it. They have all sorts of military +secrecy, of course, and so you never know a thing is going to happen +until it does." + +"Did they get a picture of the dome?" + +"Thankfully, no. And before they had a chance to try again, I whipped +everything underground." + +"It must have been hectic," Ebor said sympathetically. + +"It was," said Darquelnoy simply. + +The orderly entered. Darquelnoy told him, "Two restno," and he left +again. + +"I can't imagine them making a spaceship," said Ebor thoughtfully. "I +would have thought they'd have blown themselves up long before +reaching that stage." + +"I would have thought so, too," said Darquelnoy. "But there it is. At +the moment, they've divided themselves into two camps--generally +speaking, that is--and the two sides are trying like mad to outdo each +other in everything. As a part of it, they're shooting all sorts of +rubbish into space and crowing every time a piece of the other side's +rubbish malfunctions." + +"They could go on that way indefinitely," said Ebor. + +"I know," said Darquelnoy gloomily. "And here we sit." + +Ebor nodded, studying his friend. "You don't suppose this is all a +waste of time, do you?" he asked, after a minute. + +Darquelnoy shook a tentacle in negation. "Not at all, not at all. +They'll get around to it, sooner or later. They're still boasting +themselves into the proper frame of mind, that's all." + +Ebor rippled in sympathetic amusement. "I imagine you sometimes wish +you could give them a little prodding in the right direction," he +said. + +Darquelnoy fluttered his tentacles in horror, crying, "Don't even +_think_ of such a thing!" + +"I know, I know," said Ebor hastily. "The laws--" + +"Never mind the laws," snapped Darquelnoy. "I'm not even thinking +about the laws. Frankly, if it would do any good, I might even +consider breaking one or two of the laws, and the devil with my +conditioning." + +"You _are_ upset," said Ebor at that. + +"But if we were to interfere with those creatures up there," continued +Darquelnoy, "interfere with them in any way at all, it would be +absolutely disastrous." + +The orderly returned at that point, with two steaming cups of restno. +Darquelnoy and Ebor accepted the cups and the orderly left, making a +sloppy tentacle-cross salute, which the two ignored. + + * * * * * + +"I wasn't talking necessarily about attacking them, you know," said +Ebor, returning to the subject. + +"Neither was I," Darquelnoy told him. "We wouldn't have to attack +them. All we would have to do is let them know we're here. Not even +_why_ we're here, just the simple fact of our presence. That would be +enough. _They_ would attack _us_." + +Ebor extended his eyes in surprise. "As vicious as all that?" + +"Chilling," Darquelnoy told him. "Absolutely chilling." + +"Then I'm surprised they haven't blown themselves to pieces long +before this." + +"Oh, well," said Darquelnoy, "you see, they're cowards, too. They have +to boast and brag and shout a while before they finally get to clawing +and biting at one another." + +Ebor waved a tentacle. "Don't make it so vivid." + +"Sorry," apologized Darquelnoy. He drained his cup of restno. "Out +here," he said, "living next door to the little beasts day after day, +one begins to lose one's sensibilities." + +"It has been a long time," agreed Ebor. + +"Longer than we had originally anticipated," Darquelnoy said frankly. +"We've been ready to move in for I don't know how long. And instead we +just sit here and wait. Which isn't good for morale, either." + +"No, I don't imagine it is." + +"There's already a theory among some of the workmen that the blow-up +just isn't going to happen, ever. And since that ship went circling +by, of course, morale has hit a new low." + +"It would have been nasty if they'd spotted you," said Ebor. + +"Nasty?" echoed Darquelnoy. "Catastrophic, you mean. All that crowd up +there needs is an enemy, and it doesn't much matter to them who that +enemy is. If they were to suspect that we were here, they'd forget +their own little squabbles at once and start killing us instead. And +that, of course, would mean that they'd be united, for the first time +in their history, and who knows how long it would take them before +they'd get back to killing one another again." + +"Well," said Ebor, "you're underground now. And it can't possibly take +them _too_ much longer." + +"One wouldn't think so," agreed Darquelnoy. "In a way," he added, +"that spaceship was a hopeful sign. It means that they'll be sending a +manned ship along pretty soon, and that should do the trick. As soon +as one side has a base on the Moon, the other side is bound to get +things started." + +"A relief for you, eh?" said Ebor. + +"You know," said Darquelnoy thoughtfully, "I can't help thinking I was +born in the wrong age. All this scrabbling around, searching +everywhere for suitable planets. Back when the Universe was younger, +there were lots and lots of planets to colonize. Now the old problem +of half-life is taking its toll, and we can't even hope to keep up +with the birth rate any more. If it weren't for the occasional planets +like that one up there, I don't know what we'd do." + +"Don't worry," Ebor told him. "They'll have their atomic war pretty +soon, and leave us a nice high-radiation planet to colonize." + +"I certainly hope it's soon," said Darquelnoy. "This waiting gets on +one's nerves." He rang for the orderly. + + +THE END + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of They Also Serve, by Donald E. 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