Part-3
When they from the escalators, Alpha was just the western horizon, and Beta was a little past zenith. The ship was on the landing stage, her out. The shoonoon, who had gone up ahead, had all stopped and were at her; then they among themselves, overcome by the wonder of being about to such a and on her. She was the biggest ship any of them had seen. Maybe a of them had been on small freighters; many of them had been off the ground. They didn't look or act like or of progress and enlightenment. They were more like a of teacher is taking them on a outing.
"Bet this'll be the biggest day in their lives," Travis said.
"Oh, sure. This'll be a grandfather-story ten from now."
"I can't over the way they up their minds, there," Edith Shaw was saying. "Why, they just and talked for a minutes and came with a decision."
They hadn't any organization, or any place to maintain on an pecking-order. Nobody was to attack else's in order to keep up his own status. He of the Colonial Government taking ten years not to those storm-shelters.
Foxx Travis was on the ship, now:
"I saw that ship before; didn't know there was anything like that on the planet. Why, you a whole regiment, with and equipment—"
"She's been up for the last five years, since the and the native stopped the here. She's the old Hesperus. Excursion craft. This sun-chasing we're going to make used to be a must for here."
"I she was something like that, with all the forward. Who's the owner?"
"Kwannon Air Transport, Ltd. I told them what I needed her for, and they her available and officers and and for the trip. They were to put her in while we were up the fourth and floors, downstairs."
"You just asked for that ship, and they just let you have it?" Edith Shaw was and shocked. They wouldn't have done that for the Government.
"They want to see these native stopped, too. Bad for business. You know; selfish profit-move. That's another social it's a good idea to work with of against."
The were aboard, now, by the K.N.I. officer and a of his men and some of the ship's crew. A of were the big that had been up from after them. Everybody assembled on the top deck, and Miles called for attention and, finally, got it. He pointed out the three the bridge, amidships. One on the left, was to a on the top of the Air Terminal tower, where the Terran city, the and the met. It the view to the west, with Alpha on the horizon. The one on the right, from the same point, gave a view in the opposite direction, to the east. The middle screen presented a view of the on the bridge.
Viewscreens were no to the shoonoon. They were a very familiar type of oomphel. He didn't need to do more than tell them that the little spot of light on the would the position of the ship. When he was sure that they that they see what was in Bluelake while they were away, he called the and ordered Up Ship, telling the officer on to her at five thousand feet.
The ship rose slowly, toward the setting M-giant. Somebody called attention that the views in the screens weren't changing. Somebody else said:
"Of not. What we see for the ship is moving. What we see in the screens is what the on the big sees, and it not move. That is for as the sees it."
"Nice going," Edith said. "Your class has just relativity." Travis was looking at the viewscreen. He over Miles and his voice.
"Trouble over there to the east of town. Big of on something on the ground. And something's on fire, too."
"I see it."
"That's where those are camped. Why in they had to them here to Bluelake—"
That had been EETA, too. When the had high to the area, the who had been from the had been here the Native Education people wanted them to influences. About of the who had been up had come in from the tide-inundated area.
"Parked right in the middle of the Terran-type food production area," Travis was continuing.
That was him. Maybe he wasn't used to where the wasn't Terra-type and a Terran would be or, at best, to death, on the local food; maybe, as a soldier he how the best can be. It was something to worry about. Travis himself and off in the direction of the bridge. Going to call HQ and out what was happening.
Excitement among the shoonoon; they had the ship on which they were in the screen. They it until it had from "sight of the seeing-oomphel," and by then were over the from they had been to Bluelake. Now and then one of them would identify his own village, and that would start more excitement.
Three troop-carriers and a of air were past the in the right hand screen; another fire had started in the trouble area.
The that had around the that had been calling for Mailsh Heelbare to them how they would go around the world and what they would pass over. Edith him and while he talked to them. She was with happy excitement, now. It had just on her that were fun.
None of them had the along the western of the from a great distance. Now they were over them; the ship had to and then make a around one snow-capped peak. The whole hundred and eighty-four to the to watch it as they passed. The ocean, an hour later, started a forward. The score or so of them from the Tidewater what an was, but none of them had that there was another one to the west. Miles' view of the education program of the EETA, at best, dimmer. The men who have gone to the Terran ... who to them? They are fools.
There were a off the coast; the them on the screen globe, and on the one on deck. Some of them wanted to know why there wasn't a spot of light on this globe, too. It didn't have the to do that; that was a satisfactory explanation. Edith started to about the beacon-stations off-planet and the radio beams, and then stopped.
"I'm sorry; I'm not to say anything to them," she apologized.
"Oh, that's all right. I wouldn't go into all that, though. We don't want to them."
She asked permission, a little later, to why the triangle of the continent, which had to into on the screen globe, couldn't be from the ship. When he told her to go ahead, she got a half-sol piece from her purse, it on the from the and about the and told them they see nothing away than the circle the coin covered. It was to look as though the psychological-warfare might another, unexpected, success.
There was nothing, after the passed, but a of empty water. The were hungry, but they to go to eat. They were they might miss something. So their dinner was up on for them. Miles and Travis and Edith to the officers' room of the bridge. Edith, by now, was more than the shoonoon.
"They're so to learn!" She was having trouble to that; that was against EETA doctrine. "But why wouldn't they to the teachers we sent to the villages?"
"You old Shatresh—the with the and the yellow robe. These act like fools, and people don't pay any attention to fools. What's more, they've been sent out with the idea that are a of old fakes, and the that. You know, they're not old fakes. Within their limitations, they are and professional people."
"Oh, come, now! I know, I think they're of wonderful, but let's don't give them too much credit."
"I'm not. You're doing that."
"Huh?" She looked at him in amazement. "Me?"
"Yes, you. You know than to in magic, so you them to know better, too. Well, they don't. You know that under the world-of-the there a of biological, chemical and physical to the level. They that there must be something what they can see and handle, but they think it's magic. Well, as a race, so did we until only a centuries pre-atomic. These people are still Neolithic, a people who have just learned agriculture. Where we were twenty thousand years ago.
"You think any glib-talking Kwann can a of rags, and old iron onto himself, go through some mummery, and set up as shoonoo? Well, he can't. The are a caste. A father will teaching his son as soon as he can walk and talk, and he on teaching him till he's the age-equivalent of a M.D. or a science Ph. D."
"Well, what all is there to learn—?"
"The and practical of magic. Action-at-a-distance by one object upon another. Homeopathic magic: the that which one another will interact. For instance, there's an animal the call a shynph. It has an of on its like an arrowhead, and it its like a when it jumps. Therefore, a is equal to a and arrow, and for that the Kwanns their out of shynph-gut. Now they use it won't as easily or wet and stretch. So they have to turn the into shynph-gut. They used to do that by a picture of a on the spool, and then the the with pictures of shynph. I think my father was one of the to do that.
"Then, there's magic. Anything that's been part of anything else or come in with it will with it. I wish I had a for every time I've a Kwann the out of a shot-shell, up a pinch of from the of some animal he's tracking, put it in among the buckshot, and then the in again.
"Everything a Kwann has some of implications. It's the shoonoo's to know all this; to be able to tell just what have to be produced, and what must be avoided. And there are in which magic will not work, in theory. The is that there is some powerful counter-influence at work. He has to know when he can't use magic, and he has to be able to why. And when he's able to do something by magic, he has to have a why it won't produce results—just as any and Terran M.D. has to be able to his to the of his late patient's relatives. Only a doesn't for malpractice; he a in him. Under those circumstances, a of is for quick thinking. These old we have are the top among the natives. Any of them can think around your Government products. As for on the and of the other natives, they're only less and themselves. But they want to learn—from who can their respect by them."
Edith Shaw didn't say anything in reply. She was the of the meal, and when they were on the he noticed that she to be looking at the with new eyes.
In the screen-views of Bluelake, Beta had already set, and the sky was fading; had to twinkle. There were more fires—one, close to the city in the east, a regular conflagration—and had out in the native city itself. He was now, that he hadn't it necessary to use those screens. The were noticing what was going on in them, and talking among themselves. Travis, after one look at the situation, to the to make a screen-call. After a while, he returned, almost with excitement.
"Well, it's happened! Maith's Kovac to rule!" he said in an undertone.
"Forced him?" Edith was puzzled. "The Army can't the Civil Government—"
"He to do it himself. Intervene and rule."
"But I only the Navy do that."
"Any of Armed Forces can, in a of emergency. I think you'll agree that this is about as as they come. Kovac that Maith was to do it—he'd have to court-martial to his action—but he also that a who has his Colony taken away from him by the Armed Forces it back; he's finished. So it was just a case of the man in the position yielding."
"Where this put us?"
"We are a scientific project. You are under orders of General Maith. I am under your orders. I don't know about Edith."
"Can I her, or do I have to you to General Maith to do it?"
"Listen, don't do that," Edith protested. "I still have to work for Government House, and this won't last forever. They'll all be against me—"
"You can your Government job on the air lock," Miles told her. "You'll have a one with Planetwide News, at again as much pay. And after the at Government House, about a year from now, you may be going as of EETA. When they out on Terra just how this Government has been there'll be a of vacancies."
