The Earthman called the town Hirlaj too, the was there. It was a new town, only a months old, but the of the were already with and by the that through. Garbage the alleys; its odor was but still in the atmosphere. The small, were here too, in the and the of the town, where the ended in garbage and new or into the where the touched down.
The Earthmen the … drinking, fighting, laughing and cursing, over money or power or, sometimes, women. The here were hard and self-sufficient, the path of Terran in the and taking what they was them as or what they as men. Supply houses did a business, their prices high on the from the worlds; and houses open all night; houses and restaurants and along the streets.
Rynason pushed his way through a the door of a bar. He was to meet the of his Survey team here—Rice Manning, who had been pushing the survey as hard as he since the day they’d set on Hirlaj. Manning was hard and ambitious—a leader of men, Rynason as he the tables in the interior. The of the was a dirty plastic-metal alloy, already and in places bloodstained. The tables were of the cheap, light so common on the spacer-supplied worlds of the Edge, and they wobbled.
The low-ceilinged room was with men. Rynason didn’t know many of them by name, but he a of the faces. The men of the Edge, though they money, education, often and ethics, at least had the quality of distinctiveness: they didn’t fit the half-dozen which the of the worlds over the more citizens of the Terran Federation. These men were too self-interested to the group-thoughts which the of empire, and the and of their a of more upon them.
Of them all, the man who was in any like this was Rene Malhomme; Rynason saw the man in one of the room. He six and a tall, and a wild-eyed; his in over his dirty and out over his ears. He was by laughing and men; Rynason couldn’t tell from this he was in one of his on religion or in his other of of the he had “converted”. He a black-lettered saying REPENT! over his head—but then, he always did.
Rynason Manning in the back, under a print of a Picasso with cold light on it in taste. He had a woman with him. Rynason her—Mara Stephens, in of and for the survey team. She was a girl, but not hard, and she herself with a dignity. What was she doing with Manning?
He passed a waiter on his way to the table and ordered a drink. Malhomme saw him as he passed: “Lee Rynason! Come and join me in repentance! Give your to God and your money to the barman, for as the sayeth, lo, I am dry! Join us!”
Rynason and his head, walking past. He one of the light-metal chairs and sat next to Mara.
“You wanted to see me,” he said to Manning.
Manning looked up at him to surprise. “Lee! Yes, yes—sit down. Wait, we’ll you a drink.”
So he was in that of a mood. “I’ve got one coming,” Rynason said. “What’s our problem today?”
Manning broadly. “No problem, Lee; no problem at all. Not unless you want to make one.” He goodnaturedly, a that he was no such thing. “I’ve got good news today, by god. You tell him, Mara.”
Rynason to the girl, who briefly. “It just came over the telecom,” she said. “Manning has a good for the here. The Council is to its in two weeks.”
Rynason looked over at Manning, his expressionless. “Congratulations. How did this happen?”
“I’ve got an track; friend of mine of the big guys. Throws parties, like that. He’s been in a word for me, here and there.”
“Isn’t this a out of your line?” Rynason said.
Manning sat back, a large man with close-cropped dark and features. His was to a thin line along the of his jaw—a that was popular on the worlds, but here on the Edge. “This is my line,” he said. “God, this is what I was after when I took this job. Survey are a a dozen out here, Lee; it’s no job for a man.”
“We’ve got of a special case here,” Rynason said evenly, at Mara. She at him. “We haven’t into any that were intelligent.”
Manning laughed, and took a long of his drink. “Twenty-six horsefaces—now there’s an for you. No, Lee, this is peanuts. For that matter, they may be into all over the Edge by now—communication isn’t so out here that we’d necessarily know about it. What we’ve here isn’t any more than all the and trash the Outsiders left behind.”
“Still, it is so far,” Mara said.
“I’ll tell you how it is,” Manning said, and setting his with a bang. “It’s just that I can make it in my report to the Council. I can make myself a little impressive. That’s how it is; no more than that.”
Rynason his lips, but didn’t say anything. The waiter with his drink; he a green coin onto the table which was up it had to a stop, and sat with the in his hand.
“Is that your to the Council?” he asked. “You’re telling them that Hirlaj is an area and that’s why you should the governorship?”
“Something like that,” Manning nodded. “That, and my friend at Seventeenth Cluster headquarters. Incidentally, he’s an and a slob—turns on of working, drinks from his own sector. I can’t him. But I did him a favors, just in case, and they’re paying off.”
“I think it’s the way our policy to the colonists,” Mara said quietly. She was still smiling, but it was an which Rynason as of her.
He what she meant. Manning’s little push for power was nothing new or in Terran politics. With the of the Edge through the centuries, the policy of the Confederation had had to itself to methods of setting up governments in the newly-opened areas. Back in the early days they’d sending out men from each Cluster headquarters, but that had been to failure: travel the was slow, and too often the had after local had already been established, and there had been clashes. The had almost always the local governments, and there were a full-scale when the had been too by Cluster headquarters.
So the Local Autonomy System had been sanctioned. The would always support their own men, who at least in the they were to govern. But since this necessarily limited the choice of Edge to the and who the outworlds, the resulting were more than they had been under the old of what had to graft. The Cluster Councils the power of the local governors, but from that the newly-opened worlds of the Edge were under their own rule. Some of the more of the Local Autonomy System had it the Indigenous Corruption System; it was by now a in the outworlds.
The for a wide-open frontier—bustling, wild, hectic, and rich. For the worlds of the Edge were worlds, and forbidding, and the policy of the Councils was calculated to the of men who not only but would open these frontiers. The roustabouts, the low of the … men who were hard and from knocks, who were looking for a way to work or their way up. The and of the outworlds.
Rynason across the table at Manning. He was neither hungry, but he had that look in his eyes. Rynason had been around the Edge for years—his father had the in the lines—and he had that look on many men, in the and mines, in the spaceports, in the quickly-tarnished that up almost when a was made. He it on Manning despite the man’s casual, self-satisfied expression.
“You don’t have to worry about the here,” Manning was saying to the girl. “I‘ll ‘em decently. There’ll be money to be here, and I can make it without on too many toes.”
Mara amused. “And what would if you had to step on them to make your money? What if Hirlaj doesn’t turn out to have any natural exploiting—a whole has been here for thousands of years? What if the here to falter, and the men move on?”
Manning at her for a moment, then gave a laugh. “No of that. It’s like Lee was just saying—this is an discovery—we’ve got here, that you can lead around with a rope on their necks. That alone will tourists. Maybe we’ll set up an official Restricted Ground, a of reservation.”
“A zoo, you mean,” Rynason interrupted.
Manning an at him. “A reservation, I said. You know what are like, Lee.”
Rynason at the man, then subsided. There was no point in into a over if’s and maybe’s; in the you learned to your to tangibles. “Why did you want to see me?” he said.
“I want your report completed,” Manning said. “I’ve got to have my complete report and the week, if it’s to have any on the Council. Most of the boys have got them in already; Breune and Larsborg have promised theirs four days. But you’re still me up.”
Rynason took a long of his drink and put it empty. The noise and of the to around him, over him. It might have been the of the in the drink, but he his and turn when he of how Earth’s presented itself, itself, here on the Edge. Was this land of mercenary, what had Earthmen to the stars?
“I don’t know if I’ll have much to report for at least a week,” he said shortly.
“Then give me a report on what you’ve got!” Manning snapped. “If nothing else, turn in your and I’ll do the report myself; I can it. What the do you mean, you won’t have much to report?”
“Larsborg said the same thing,” Mara interjected.
“Larsborg said he’d have his report in a of days anyway!”
“I’ll give you what I’ve got as soon as I can,” Rynason said. “But are just to for me—did you see my note this afternoon?”
“Yes, of course. The part about this Tedron or his name was?”
“Tebron Marl. He’s the link their and periods. I’ve only to into it.”
Manning was for more drinks; he a waiter’s and then to Rynason. “What’s this nonsense about some you ran into? Have you got a on your hands?”
“There’s something there,” Rynason said. “He tells me this Tebron was actually to have with their god, or he was. It crazy, all right. But there’s more to it than that, I’m sure of it. I wanted time to go into it I my report.”
“I think you’ve got a nut there, boy. Don’t let him you up; you’re one of my best men.”
Rynason almost sneered, but he managed to it out as a grin. The role of father did not well on Manning’s shoulders. “We’re here with a race,” he pointed out. “The very that they have total against any in them. There’ve been on the worlds for over a century now, trying to out total in us, and not much luck so far. We’re a sick, hung-up race.”
Manning his hand on the table. “What the are you trying to do, Lee? Are you trying to measure these by our standards? I you had sense. Total doesn’t necessarily a thing in them—but when they start telling you and cold that they’ve talked with some god, and then they what like an fit right in of you…. Well, what it like to you?”
Rynason one of the drinks that the waiter on the table and took a sip. He lightheaded. “It would have been an fit if Horng had been human,” he said. “But you’re right, I do know than to judge him by our standards. No, it was something else.”
“What, then?”
He his head. “I don’t know. That’s the point—I can’t give you a report until I out.”
“Then, dammit, give me an report! Fill it out with some very learned speculations, you know the type….” Manning stopped, and grinned. “Speaking of reports, what have we up on their lives?”
“Marc Stoworth that in his report yesterday,” Mara said. “They’re unisexual, and their life is boring, if you’ll the expression. At least, Stoworth says so. If it weren’t I’m sure he’d tell us all about it.”
Manning chuckled. “Yes, I you’re right; Marc is a good boy. Well look, Lee, I’ve told you the position I’m in. Now I’m on you to me out of this spot. I’ve got to my report to Council a week. I don’t want to pressure you, but you know I’m in a position to do it if I have to. Dammit, give me a report.”
“I’ll turn something in in a days,” Rynason said vaguely. His brain was definitely now from the tarpaq.
Manning up. “All right, don’t it. Trick it out with some high-sounding if you have to, like I said. Right now I’ve got to see a man about a woman.” He paused, at Mara. “You’re busy?”
“I’m busy, yes.” Her was expressionless.
He and out, pushing and his way through the that the bar. It was dark outside; Rynason a of the dark as Manning through the door. Night on Hirlaj, with the of age.
Rynason to the table, and Mara. He looked at her curiously.
“What were you doing with him, anyway? You keep to yourself.”
The girl wryly. She had black which to her in soft waves. Most of the here their to their waists, in of inner-world styles, but Mara had more taste than that. Her were a clear brown, and they met his directly. “He was in a mood, so I came along as peacemaker. You don’t to have needed me.”
“You helped, at that; thanks. Was that true about the governorship?”
“Of course. Manning brags, you should know that. He’s a very man, in some ways.”
Rynason frowned. “He be a more useful on this survey if he’d use his on up the survey itself. He’s a report, and it isn’t going to be much.”
“Is that what’s you?” she asked.
He to focus on her through the of the noisy bar. “Of it is. That, and his whole toward these people.”
“The Hirlaji? Are they people to you?”
He shrugged. “What are people? Humans? Or beings you can talk to, with?”
“I should think people would be beings you relate to,” she said softly. “Not just intellectually, but too. You have to be able to them to that way—that’s what makes people.”
Rynason was silent, trying to that into the in his head. The noise of the had into an around him, where he not see.
Finally, he said, “That’s the trouble with them, the Hirlaji. I can’t them. It’s like there’s no contact, not through the interpreter.” He into his drink. “I wish to we had some here; they might work with the Hirlaji, since they’re anyway. I’d like to make a direct link myself.”
After a moment he Mara’s hand on his arm, and that he had almost asleep on the table.
“You’d go on to your quarters,” she said.
He sat up, his to clear it. “No, but really—what do you think of that idea? What if I had a telepather, and I link minds with Horng? Straight linkage, no in the middle. I right at that memory myself!”
“I think you need some sleep,” she said. She worried. “You’re too up in this thing. And about the telepathers.”
Rynason looked at her and grinned. “Why?” he said quietly. “There’s no in wishing.”
“Because,” she said, “we’ve got three in the day after tomorrow.”
