Apes and Angels Read online

  Felicia corrected, “That’s not from scripture. It’s from Hammurabi’s code of laws for the Babylonians.”

  “I don’t care if it’s from the Magna Carta,” Kosoff snapped. “We are not here to destroy alien species.”

  Brad asked, “So what do we do about the cats?”

  Kosoff stroked his beard once, twice. Then, “Let me talk to the World Council about this.”

  Brad thought, A bureaucrat’s reaction. When in doubt, buck the question upstairs.

  Kosoff focused his piercing blue eyes on Brad. “I have another quotation for you, MacDaniels. When you fight monsters, be careful that you don’t become a monster yourself.”

  “Friedrich Nietzsche,” Felicia said.

  Brad said nothing. He merely smiled tightly at Kosoff. But he was thinking, How can we protect the Gammans from the monsters?

  ATTITUDES

  As they headed back to Gamma, sitting side by side in the shuttle’s cramped seats, Brad grumbled, “That was a waste of time.”

  Felicia countered, “Not really. We decided to put the generators in orbit around Alpha. We’ve saved the octopods.”

  He made a reluctant grin. “Steiner isn’t happy about it. She wants to experiment on the creatures.”

  “She’s a biologist, Brad. She’s got all sorts of new and different species all around her, and she hasn’t been allowed to study them.”

  “You mean she hasn’t been allowed to chop them up and poke around their innards.”

  “Don’t be cruel,” Felicia said. “How would you like it if you weren’t allowed to talk with your Gammans?”

  Leaning closer to her, Brad asked, “Fil, how can we save the Gammans from those damned cats? They’ll be slaughtered all over again the next time the two planets approach each other.”

  “The first thing to do,” she replied, “is to learn all we can about the cats. Their biology, their life spans, how they breed—”

  “Maybe we should arm the Gammans,” Brad muttered.

  “Arm them?”

  “Give them lasers so they can protect themselves.”

  “Kosoff would never agree to that.”

  “Maybe I should shoot him first.”

  “Be serious, Brad!”

  He shook his head wearily. “Anyway, the Gammans are too passive. They’d probably hold the lasers in their hands while the cats chewed on them.”

  Emcee’s emotionless voice emanated from the overhead speakers, “Landing in two minutes.”

  Brad looked out the oval window and saw the base camp flash past. It was growing: more buildings, more vehicles. In two years their encampment had turned into a miniature city.

  A city that the Gammans avoid as if it were haunted, he told himself. Even Lnng is nervous, edgy when I bring him out to see what we’re doing.

  Glancing at Felicia to make sure her shoulder harness was secure, he tightened his own straps and leaned his head against the chair’s back.

  “I guess you’re right,” he said. “The first thing we have to do is learn all we can about the cats. And their spacecraft.”

  * * *

  The villagers had grown accustomed to having humans among them. Brad tried to keep the contacts to a minimum; all visits to the village were for necessary reasons, no idle sightseeing. Still, men and women from Earth had quickly become commonplace among the Gammans.

  It helped, Brad thought, that the aliens were so passive. Even Lnng accepted the presence of humans in the village with little more than an acquiescent shrug of his shoulders.

  Very different from how we would react if a crowd of aliens suddenly descended on Earth. Then he realized, Here on Gamma, we’re the aliens.

  Felicia spent most of her time in the encampment’s spare, utilitarian biology lab, analyzing the imagery coming in from the satellites orbiting Beta.

  Brad went into the village every day, trying to find some way of getting the Gammans to protect themselves.

  He was standing in the village’s central square. Funny, he thought, even though this open space is circular I still think of it as a square. The afternoon was warm and sunny, although Brad could see that the distant mountaintops were dusted with snow. Don’t let this lovely afternoon fool you, he told himself. Winter is on its way.

  As usual, he had driven one of the camp’s buggies into the village and parked it in front of the longhouse. Beats walking back and forth, Brad told himself. The Gammans had been curious about the vehicle the first time they saw it. Brad had done his best to explain the “horseless carriage” to them; he had even lifted up its hood to reveal the tiny nuclear-powered electric motor.

  Lnng had asked if he could drive the buggy and Brad had allowed him to tool it around the village’s central square—slowly. Sitting beside the Gamman, Brad had kept the buggy’s remote controller in his lap, ready to take over the controls if he had to.

  Once the drive was finished, Lnng stepped out of the buggy with obvious reluctance. “I could travel a long way in this,” he said. “All the way to the mountains, I think.”

  “And farther,” said Brad, making a mental note to leave a couple of the buggies in the village when he departed for Earth.

  That evening, as the setting Mithra cast purple shadows across the hollow, Brad joined Mnnx, Lnng, and a half-dozen other Gammans as they went into the home they shared for their evening meal. A sharp wind was whistling down from the snowcapped mountains; the weather was turning cold, raw.

  But inside the house, the fireplace glowed warm and cheerfully. The Gammans sat in a semicircle on the dirt floor as their stew pot bubbled. Brad thought the stew smelled harsh, unappetizing, but the Gammans seemed delighted with the aroma.

  Sitting between Mnnx and Lnng, as usual, Brad saw through the house’s only window that it was fully night outside, dark and cold.

  “I’ll have to leave you soon,” he said.

  “Leave?” Mnnx echoed.

  “I’ll come back tomorrow.”

  “Oh.” With obvious relief.

  Lnng said, “But one day you will leave for good and return to your own village in the sky.”

  “Yes, that is true,” said Brad.

  Lnng clutched Brad’s knee with one of his ropy hands, making Brad twitch with alarm. The Gamman asked, “Brrd, why can’t you stay here, with us? When the monsters come again you could protect us.”

  Brad shook his head. “I wish I could.”

  Mnnx said, “Brrd must return to his own village, far away in the sky.”

  “But why?” Lnng asked, almost pleading.

  Mnnx answered, “It is the wish of the Sky Masters.”

  “No,” said Brad. “The Sky Masters do not control me or my people.”

  “You think not,” argued Mnnx, “but the Sky Masters are very powerful, very wise. They are controlling you even though you do not know it.”

  “Can that really be true?” one of the other Gammans asked.

  “It is true,” Mnnx said. “The Sky Masters are all-powerful. They are watching us now.”

  “No,” said Brad. “They have gone far away.”

  “Even from far away they can see us.”

  Lnng challenged, “Then why did they let Brrd protect us from the monsters?”

  “To test us,” Mnnx replied without a moment’s hesitation. “To see if we would accept their judgment over us, or give in to the temptation to live, even though that is against their command to us.”

  Brad asked, “The Sky Masters want you to die?”

  “Yes. So that there will be room for the new Folk when they rise from the ground.”

  “But we’ve built a new village for them,” Brad said.

  Lnng added, “We can build many new villages, all across the land.”

  “And the Sky Masters will return and smash all the villages to dust. They will kill us all for disobeying their commands.”

  Lnng leaned forward as he sat and reached across Brad to tap Mnnx on the chest. “So the punishment for not allowing the monsters to
kill us is for the Sky Masters to kill us.”

  “Yes.”

  “Then what difference does it make?” Lnng shouted. “We die either way.”

  Mnnx was silent for several heartbeats. At last he replied, “We have disobeyed the Sky Masters. They will return and punish us.”

  “But until they do,” said Lnng, “let us live and enjoy living. Let us live today and not worry about tomorrow.”

  “No,” said Brad. “Let us live today and prepare for tomorrow.”

  * * *

  All through the drive back to the encampment Brad thought about what he had to do. If there’s no way to prevent the cats from crossing to Gamma the next time the two planets come close, then I’m going to have to give the Gammans weapons to defend themselves.

  Mnnx is a fatalist, but Lnng wants to live. He’s the one who should be leader in the village. He’s the one who’ll fight.

  But how many others will follow his lead? Brad wondered. How many of them will stand there like dumb animals and allow the cats to tear them apart, the way Drrm did?

  Once he got to his quarters, Brad began to tell Felicia what he was planning.

  “Give them weapons?” She looked shocked. “Brad, you can’t do that. You don’t know where it might lead.”

  “It will lead to their survival,” he said flatly.

  “It could wreck their culture,” she replied, almost pleadingly. “It could destroy them more completely than the cats from Beta.”

  Brad started to shake his head, but Felicia insisted, “Surely as an anthropologist you can see that, can’t you? It would be like giving guns to children.”

  “Children who are in the grip of an ancient mythology, of superstition and ignorance.”

  “But you can’t force them to change.”

  “Can’t I?”

  Almost desperately, Felicia said, “Kosoff won’t allow it.”

  Brad knew she was right. But he said tightly, “We’ll see.”

  KILLING MACHINES

  “It’s fascinating,” said Felicia as she stared at the holographic image of planet Beta’s bleak landscape.

  Felicia and Ursula Steiner were sitting side by side on a pair of the cramped laboratory’s padded stools as they intently watched the 3-D imagery of one of the cats limping across the bare, stony ground.

  “It looks emaciated,” Steiner said.

  “It’s dying,” said Felicia.

  “Starving,” Steiner murmured.

  “They’re all dying,” said Felicia. “All across the planet.”

  “It is fascinating,” said Steiner, staring at the dying cat limping across the barren landscape. “The cats that went to Gamma all died within a few days of landing there, while the few who remained on Beta have survived all this time.”

  “But now they’re dying,” Felicia pointed out.

  Steiner called, “Emcee, how many of the cats are still active?”

  “Sixteen,” replied the master computer’s voice.

  “Across the entire planet?”

  Emcee answered flatly, “The satellite sensors have detected sixteen of the animals still active. They all appear to be dying.”

  “Starving to death,” said Felicia.

  Clenching her fists, Steiner insisted, “We must acquire a few of those carcasses for examination, before they completely decompose.”

  “Will Professor Kosoff allow a flight to Beta?” Felicia asked.

  “He must! He’s got to!”

  * * *

  Kosoff wasn’t surprised by Steiner’s request.

  “Pick up a few of the dead cats?” he asked as he sat behind his desk.

  Steiner and Felicia were still in the bio lab on Gamma’s surface.

  “Yes!” Steiner replied eagerly. “We’ve got to examine them before they completely decompose.”

  Drumming his fingers on his desktop, Kosoff said, “Ursula, a mission to Beta won’t be as easy as hopping down from orbit up here to Gamma. Beta’s receding from our location, moving away farther each day.”

  Felicia asked, “But it’s still within reach of a shuttlecraft, isn’t it?”

  Kosoff asked, “Emcee, can one of our shuttles reach Beta?”

  “Yes,” replied the computer’s voice, “although it will only be able to carry a fraction of its usual payload of cargo.”

  “All we need is two or three of the dead cats,” Steiner urged.

  Kosoff nodded. “Let me get approval from Earth.”

  “We mustn’t lose any time!” Steiner pleaded. “Their dead bodies are decomposing rapidly!”

  “I’ll order a shuttle outfitted for the mission. My call to Earth will be strictly pro forma.”

  “But what if they say no?”

  “They won’t. Trust me.”

  * * *

  Three weeks later, Brad returned from the Gammans’ village to find that Felicia was not at their quarters. Again. It was late, fully night, and he had been looking forward to a quiet supper with his wife.

  She’s spending more time in her lab with Steiner than she is with me, he thought sourly. Then he immediately felt guilty. She’s busy examining the cats that have been brought back from Beta. She’s excited about her work. I guess I would be, too, if I were a biologist.

  Still, he didn’t know if he should break out a prepackaged dinner and eat alone or wait for Felicia to return from her lab.

  Neither, he decided. He left their quarters and walked through the darkness to the biology lab.

  No one was in the lab. The main room was brightly lit, workbenches and equipment lining the floor. But Felicia wasn’t anywhere in sight. Then Brad saw there was a door on the far side of the room. She must be in there, he reasoned as he crossed the room.

  A handwritten sign stuck to the door read, NO ADMITTANCE. DISSECTION IN PROGRESS.

  That can’t mean me, Brad told himself as he opened the door.

  The stench made his knees buckle. The reek of rotting flesh. Trying to keep from gagging, Brad saw that Felicia and Steiner were bent over the body of one of the cats, stretched out on the dissection table. Both women were in protective bio suits, wearing breathing masks and goggles.

  Felicia looked up as Brad staggered into the lab, holding a hand over his face.

  “Can’t you read?” Steiner snarled, without turning to see who had entered the room.

  Felicia pointed to the closet on the far wall and said, “Get into a breathing mask and bio suit if you intend to remain in here!”

  Steiner glanced over her shoulder at him, clearly annoyed.

  Brad crossed the laboratory and pulled on a breathing mask. The oxygen felt cold and good. Then he struggled into one of the protective suits hanging in the closet. It was a bit small for him, sleeves and leggings ending several centimeters short. It felt snug as Brad slapped its fasteners over his chest.

  “Goggles too,” Felicia called, still standing at the dissection table.

  “And sterile gloves,” Steiner added.

  At last Brad was adequately protected, although he knew that any alien pathogens would hardly attack human tissue. But rules are rules, he said to himself as he walked to the table where the two women were bent over their grisly work.

  “Making progress?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Steiner replied tersely.

  Felicia looked up at him. “You’re right, Brad. These animals are nothing more than killing machines. They’re designed to breed, to attack the Gammans, and then to die.”

  “After they produce a new generation,” Steiner added.

  “And all aimed at killing the Gammans,” said Brad.

  Steiner nodded. “It appears that way.”

  KNOW THY ENEMY

  For once, Brad didn’t mind attending one of Kosoff’s meetings.

  The starship’s main auditorium was packed for Steiner’s presentation. The entire biology staff was there, of course, together with all the department heads and much of each of the other departments’ staffs. Captain Desai and a handful of
the ship’s officers were there as well, sitting with Kosoff in the front row.

  Brad sat alongside Felicia, in the midst of the biology team. Littlejohn and the other anthropologists were in the row behind them.

  The buzz of anticipatory conversations stopped as Steiner climbed the three steps to the stage. Behind her, the wall-to-wall 3-D display showed a still image of one of the six-legged cats from Beta; huge, powerful, snarling.

  Steiner wore a severe white pants suit, with jewelry sparkling at her throat, wrists, and earlobes. Her golden hair was pinned up atop her head, making her look even taller than usual, more regal.

  “I am here,” she began, “to report on our examination of the catlike creatures from planet Beta.”

  The audience sat stock-still, taut, expectant.

  “What we have found is truly extraordinary,” Steiner went on. “I haven’t seen anything like this in all my days as a biologist.

  “These cats are nothing less than killing machines. They are built to kill; evolved—or perhaps deliberately designed—to slaughter the intelligent bipeds of planet Gamma, and then themselves to die off.”

  The holographic image behind her changed to show a detailed image of one of the cats’ innards. “This was one of the cats that we found on Gamma.”

  Turning slightly to aim a laser pointer at the imagery, Steiner said, “As you can see, the creature has only a rudimentary digestive system. It can drink water and ingest little else. Its active life span is measured in days. It emerges from its egg, after flying from Beta to Gamma, hunts down all the Gammans it can find, and then dies.”

  She hesitated a moment, then went on, “It is noteworthy to realize that its digestive system cannot handle anything we would think of as food: meat or vegetables. It kills its prey but does not eat it. It dies of starvation.”

  From the front row, Kosoff asked, “How could such an animal evolve? How does it procreate itself?”

  Looking almost distressed, Steiner replied, “There appear to be three separate types of animal: the males—which are breeders; the females—which lay the eggs for the next generation. They both live for several Earth years before their digestive systems shut down, which kills them. They produce the next generation of beasts sexually, then die off.”