Jathong looked unhappy, as if being forced to say something he wanted not to say. "Pendleton was kava—I cannot explain it. The concept is difficult. You would not understand."
He might be running the danger of throwing too many questions at Jathong, Eckert realized, and having him freeze up or turn vague. But it couldn't be helped. They had made no progress at all by subtlety2, and time would eventually run out.
He tried to broach3 the next question delicately. "Did Pendleton know any of the women of your race?"
"He knew some of the women, as he knew the men."
The answer didn't tell Eckert what he wanted to know. "Was he in love with any woman?" It sounded crude the way he put it, but it was hard to think of any other way of asking it.
Jathong looked at him incredulously, as if Eckert had asked him if Pendleton had had two heads.
"That would have been impossible. None of our women would have—could have—been in love with menshar Pendleton."
One line of inquiry4 just gone phht, Eckert thought. But Pendleton wasn't one to let a broken heart get him down anyway.
"Why not?" Templin cut in harshly. "He wasn't hard to look at and he would have made a good husband."
Jathong diplomatically turned around to face Templin. "I have told you once—Pendleton was kava. It would have been quite impossible."
The answer to what had happened to Pendleton probably lay in Jathong's inability to explain his own terms, Eckert believed. One could get just so close, and then the definitions became vague and useless.
He asked a few more questions and finally dismissed Jathong. The interview, like all the others he and Templin had held during the last week, had been worthless. They knew nothing more than they had when they landed.
"I still think they're lying," Templin said almost savagely5. "Or perhaps the ones who really know something haven't come around."
Eckert got his pipe and sat near the doorway6, letting the sunlight streaming through the foliage7 of a nearby tree dapple his face with a checkerboard pattern of modulated8 lights and velvety9 shadows.
"If they're evading11 us or if they're lying, then the society is a dangerous one for us. But I still can't believe it. They're not warlike. They don't seem to have many weapons and definitely none of an advanced type."
"How could anybody know for sure?"
Eckert methodically knocked the cold ashes out of his pipe and added more tobacco. "Easy. Despite what you read in story books, no civilization lives simply, governs itself simply, and yet possesses 'super-blasters.' The sword-and-blaster combination just doesn't exist. Any weapon above the level of bows and arrows or knives is the product of a well advanced technology. Along with weapons, of course, you have to have good communications. Now take an ordinary radio and think of the degree of knowledge, technology, and industrialization that would have to exist to supply it. There's nothing like that here."
Templin came over to the warmth streaming in through the doorway. "It almost seems that they're acting12 in concert, though—as if there were some kind of plot, where, by prearrangement, everybody knows exactly what to say."
"You're wrong again. You can practically smell a dictatorship or a tyranny, which is the only situation in which almost one hundred per cent of the population will follow the same line through fear of the consequences if they don't. In a situation like that, the people are frightened, unhappy. You can hardly say that's the case on Tunpesh."
"No," Templin admitted, "you couldn't. But, still, you have to admit that the answers we've received so far are just too unanimous—and too sketchy13. All agree that Pendleton was a fine fellow; all agree that he had no native friends."
Eckert nodded. "I'll go along with that. And I think it's time we did something about it. Tonight we'll have to start eliminating certain ideas."
He took a small case from their pile of luggage and opened it. Inside was a small, battery-powered box with various dials set on the front and the usual electrodes and nerve probes protruding14 from the sides and the top.
Templin looked at it with surprise.
"That will be dangerous to use, won't it?"
"It might be more dangerous not to. Time is getting to be a factor and we have to make some progress. We have a safety margin15 of a sort in that we can erase16 memories of its use, but the procedure is still risky17."
"Who do we use it on?"
"As long as we're going to use it," Eckert said grimly, "we might as well start at the top."
When they had started out, the investigation18 had seemed fairly simple to Eckert. There were two possibilities—either Pendleton had committed suicide or he had been murdered. Knowing Pendleton's record, the first possibility had seemed remote. A few weeks on Tunpesh had convinced him that the second possibility was also remote. One or the other had to be eliminated. The second would be the easiest.
There were other reasons as well. Templin was still convinced that Pendleton had been killed, and Templin was an emotional man with access to powerful weapons. The question was not what he might eventually do, but when.
The night looked as if it would be another rainy one. It was cooler than usual and dark clouds were scudding20 across the starlit sky. Eckert and Templin stood in the shadows of the house, watching the dark lane for any casual strollers. Eckert looked at his watch. A few minutes more and Nayova would come out for his evening walk.
Eckert had just started to think longingly21 of his bed and the warmth inside his house when the door opened and Nayova appeared in the opening. Eckert held his breath while the chieftain stood uncertainly in the doorway, testing the night air, and then let it out slowly when Nayova started down the lane.
They closed in on him.
"The menshars from Earth," he said without alarm. "Is there something you wish?"
"We would like you to come with us to our house for a while," Eckert started in.
Nayova looked puzzled. "I do not understand. Would not tomorrow do as well?"
"I'm afraid it'll have to be tonight."
Nayova was obviously not quite sure of their threat.
"No, I...."
Eckert caught him before he touched the ground. Templin took the rag off the butt22 of the needle gun, lifted the ruler's feet, and they disappeared into the brush along the lane.
They would have to sneak23 back to the house, Eckert knew, and hope that nobody saw them lugging24 the unconscious native. He laughed a little grimly to himself. Templin had expected cloak-and-dagger. It looked as if he was going to get more than his share of it, after all.
Once inside the house, Eckert arranged the electrodes and the small nerve probes on Nayova, who had come to.
"I am sorry," Eckert said formally, "but we find this necessary. You understand that we have to find out all we can about Pendleton. We have no choice."
He found it difficult to look the ruler in the face, even with the realization25 that this was strictly26 in the line of duty and that the chieftain would not be hurt.
"But I have cooperated with you in every way possible!" Nayova protested. "I have told you everything we know!"
"That's right," Templin said bluntly. "And now we're going to ask you the same questions."
Nayova looked blank for a moment and then reddened as he understood.
Templin turned to the dials on the little square box.
"We would like to know," Eckert said politely, "where you were two weeks ago at this time of night."
Nayova looked surprised. "You know that I was at the halera, the coming-of-age ceremony. You were there with me, as my guests. You should assuredly know I was there."
Eckert looked over at Templin, who nodded shortly. It had been a standard question, to test the apparatus27.
"Did Pendleton have any enemies here on Tunpesh?"
Nayova emphatically shook his head. "To the best of my knowledge, menshar Pendleton had no enemies here. He would have none."
Templin's face showed its disappointment.
"Who were his friends?"
"He had no friends."
Templin glowered28 angrily, but he said nothing.
Eckert frowned. The same answer—Pendleton had had no enemies and yet he had had no friends.
"Would you say he was well liked here?"
"I would say no."
"Why not?"
A shrug29. "It is hard to explain and you would not be able to understand."
"Did somebody here kill Pendleton?"
Eckert could hear Templin suck in his breath.
"No."
"Ask him that again," Templin cut in.
"Did somebody kill Pendleton?"
"No."
"Did Pendleton kill himself?"
A trace of disgust showed on Nayova's face.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I do not know."
Templin gestured to Eckert to take the box. "Let me ask him." He came around and faced the native. "Why did your people kill Pendleton?"
"We did not kill him. We had no reason to wish him harm."
"Do you expect us to believe that Pendleton killed himself? We knew him better than that."
"You may believe whatever you wish. But men change and perhaps he did. We did not kill him. Such an act would have been repugnant to us."
"I think that's enough," Eckert said calmly.
Templin bit his lip as Eckert touched another dial on the machine. Nayova suddenly jerked, looked blank, and slumped30 in the chair.
Eckert took off the electrodes. "Help me take him back, will you, Ray?"
They carried Nayova to his house, stayed with him until he showed signs of recovering, and then left.
"Why didn't you use a drug?" Templin demanded.
"Possible allergy31 or serum32 reaction. We don't know enough about these people to take chances—they're humanoid, not human."
"They can fool machines, though, can't they?"
Eckert didn't reply.
"All right, I know they can't," Templin said grudgingly33. "He was telling the truth all the time, wasn't he?"
Eckert nodded. "I never did think he was lying. They don't seem to be the type; their culture doesn't allow for it."
They were silent for a while, walking quietly in the lanes between the shuttered, seemingly untenanted houses.
"I'm glad," Templin said quietly. "It's off my mind. It's hard to believe that anybody here would ... deliberately34 kill somebody else."
Templin's reactions would be worth something now for Eckert to study. They wouldn't be inhibited35 by his conviction that the natives had murdered his best friend. Just what reactions and emotions he would display, Eckert wasn't sure, nor how Templin's psychology36, so similar to Pendleton's, would help solve the problem.
They had eliminated one possibility, but that still left them with the one they had started with.
Why had Pendleton taken the short way out?
A breeze scampered37 through the open door and played tag with the papers on the desk. Eckert swore without annoyance38 and calmly started chasing those that had been blown on the floor.
"What did Pendleton have to say in his reports?" Templin sat in the doorway, his eyes barely open. He had begun taking siestas39 in the early afternoon, after their usual light lunch. It was pleasant to sit on the worn wood and feel the warmth of sun and smell the crisp freshness of the outdoors, or maybe watch the kids playing in the lane, catching40 the butterflies that floated past in the afternoon air.
"About what you'd expect. Mostly reports on the industry, climate, system of government, and general anthropological41 information that he thought might prove interesting. As far as I can see, he didn't lack enthusiasm for making the reports. If anything, he grew more enthusiastic as time went on. He practically wrote us treatises42 on every phase of life on Tunpesh."
Templin's eyes closed all the way.
"Any indication in his reports that he didn't like it here?"
"Just the other way around. Everything points to the fact that he liked the climate, the people, the way they lived."
"I don't blame him," Templin murmured. "This is a lovely place to be. The climate is wonderful, the people are happy, hard-working. The society itself seems to be—perfect. Sometimes you can't help but compare it too damn favorably to Earth."
Eckert shoved the papers to one side and came over to where Templin sat. He felt rather lazy himself. The warmth and sunshine corroded43 ambition, as it did in most climates like this.
"You know, there isn't any crime here," Templin continued. He laughed to himself. "Except the minor44 crime wave we caused when we landed here five months ago. No criminals, no villains45 foreclosing mortgages, no gamblers bleeding the gullible46 white, and nobody trying to sell gold bricks. I can't get over it."
A butterfly flapped into the sunlight that glistened47 on his tunic48, like a drop of water on a piece of black velvet10. It hung there for a moment and then was off, its wings flashing.
Eckert watched it go in a sort of torpor49. It was pleasant to relax and slip the leash50 off your thoughts quietly and see where they took you. Maybe it was a sort of letdown. They had expected six months of danger in a potentially criminal culture, and instead it had been paradise.
As Templin said, you couldn't help but compare it to Earth. No greed, no belligerency, no contempt for the rights of others. No cynicism, no sarcasm51, and no trampling52 crowds in the stores. The little important things....
"Where did you go last night, Ray?"
Templin stirred. "A community meeting. Almost like a Quaker meeting. You get up and say what you think. The one last night was about some local government issues. They talked it over, decided53 what to do, and how much each person should contribute. The original democracy, Ted1."
Eckert was wide awake. "I wonder why I wasn't invited." He felt slightly put out that Templin should have been asked to something like that and he hadn't been.
"I wasn't invited," Templin said. "I invited myself."
"Have you noticed," Eckert mused54, "we haven't been invited to too many functions lately?"
"They know we're busy," Templin said lazily. "They're too polite to ask us to go some place if they thought we were busy doing something else."
"You like it here, don't you, Ray?"
Templin brushed idly at a marauding mosquito. "It took me pretty long to warm up to it, but I guess I do."
They only had a month left, Eckert knew—a month to do practically nothing but lie in the sun and watch the people. Oh, they could go through the motions of investigating and look over Pendleton's old records and reports, but there was nothing in them of any value.
He yawned and sat down and settled his back against the door frame. It began to look as if they'd never find out why Pendleton had done what he had. And it didn't seem to matter, somehow.
Eckert opened the door slowly. Templin was asleep on the bed, the sunlight lying in bands across his tanned, bare back. He had on a strip of white cloth, knotted at the waist in imitation of what the natives wore.
It was mussed now, and the knot had started to come loose.
He looked a lot healthier than he had when they had first landed. More peaceful, more content. He appeared to have gained ten pounds and shed, five years in the last six months.
And now the vacation was over. It was time to go back.
"Ray," Eckert called out to him softly.
Templin didn't stir, but continued his soft and very regular breathing.
Eckert found a book and dropped it on the floor with a thud. Templin woke up, but didn't move.
"What do you want, Ted?"
"How did you know it was me?"
Templin chuckled55, as if it were hugely funny. "Riddles56 yet. Who else would it be? No Tunpeshan would be rude enough to wake somebody up in the middle of a nap, so it had to be you."
"You know what you would have done if somebody had awakened57 you like that five months ago?"
Templin tried to nod, but was slightly handicapped by the bed underneath58 him. "I would have pulled my trusty atomgun and plugged him."
Eckert went over to where they kept their luggage and started pulling the boxes out from the wall. "Well, I've got good news for you. A liner just landed to pick us up. They were going through this sector59 and they got an order from the Service to stop by for us. Some cargo-wallopers will be here in a few minutes to help us with our gear."
"Ted."
Eckert paused.
"Yes?"
"I'm not going back."
"Why not?" Eckert's face had a look of almost clinical curiosity on it.
"Why should I? I like it here. I want to live here the rest of my life."
The pieces began to fall in place.
"I'm not so sure you'd like it, Ray. Not after a while. All your friends are back on Earth. Everybody you know is back there. It's just the novelty of something new and something different here. I've felt that way a lot of times in different cultures and different societies. You'd change your mind after a while."
"Those aren't reasons, Ted. Why should I go back to a world where most of the people are unhappy at some time and a few people all the time? As far as I'm concerned, Tunpesh is my home now, and I don't intend to leave it."
Eckert was fascinated. It was like a case history unfolding right before his eyes.
"Are you sure you would enjoy it here for the rest of your life? Have you made any friends to take the place of those back home?"
"It takes time to become acquainted, even more time to make friends," Templin said defensively.
"You can't desert the Service," Eckert pointed60 out. "You still have your duty."
Templin laughed in his pillow. "It won't work, Ted. Duty's just a catch word, a jingo phrase. They can get along without me and you know it."
"What about Pendleton, Ray? He died here, you know, in mysterious circumstances."
"Would going back help him any? He wasn't murdered; we know that. And why do people commit suicide? For what one of several thousand possible reasons did Pendleton? We don't know. We'll never know. And if we did know, what good would it do?"
He had changed a lot in six months, Eckert saw.
Too much.
"What if I told you I knew why Pendleton killed himself?" Eckert asked. "And that you would do the same if you stayed here?"
"Don't use it, Ted. It's poor psychology. It won't work."
The pieces made a perfect picture. But Templin was going back whether he wanted to or not. The only difficulty was that, deep underneath, Eckert sympathized with him. Perhaps if he had been younger, less experienced....
"Then you won't go back with us?"
Templin closed his eyes and rolled over on his back. "No."
There was dead silence. Templin could smell the piny scent61 of the woods and feel the warmth of soft sunlight that lanced through the blinds. Some place far away, there was the faint chatter62 of kids at play, but outside of that it was quiet.
Too quiet.
Templin opened his eyes in sudden alarm. "Ted! Don't!" He caught the gas full in the face and tumbled back on the bed, unconscious.
Eckert opened the hatch to the observation cabin as quietly as he could. Templin was seated on one of the pneumatic couches, staring soberly at a small yellow star in the black sky. He didn't look up.
"It's me, Ray," Eckert said.
Templin didn't move.
"I suppose I owe you an apology," Eckert began, "but I had to gas you to get you to leave. Otherwise you wouldn't have left. And the same thing would have happened to you that happened to Don Pendleton."
"You're sure of that?" Templin asked bitterly.
"Reasonably. You're a lot like Pendleton, you know. In fact, that's why you were selected to go—not so much because you knew him as the fact that psychologically you were a lot like him. We thought that by studying your response to situations there, we would have a picture of what Pendleton's must have been."
Templin didn't want to talk about it, Eckert realized, but it had to be explained to him.
"Do you want to know why Pendleton killed himself?"
Templin shrugged63 listlessly.
"I suppose we should have seen it right away," Eckert continued. "Any race that is so happy with their way of life that they show no curiosity about strangers, the way they live, or what possessions they have, must have something to be happy about. Tunpesh is something that might happen only once in a thousand civilizations, maybe less, Ray.
"The environment is perfection and so are the people, or at least as near to perfection as it's possible to get. An intelligent people who have as much technology as they desire, living simply with themselves and each other. A fluke of nature, perhaps. No criminals, no insane, no neurotics64. A perfect cultural pattern. Tunpesh is a paradise. You didn't want to leave, neither did I, and neither did Pendleton."
Templin turned on him. "So it was paradise. Would it have been criminal if I had stayed there? Who would it have hurt?"
"It would have hurt you," Eckert said gravely. "Because the Tunpeshans would never have accepted you. We're too different, Ray. We're too aggressive, too pushy65, too persistent66. We're not—perfect. You see, no matter how long we stayed there, we would never have fit in. We lived in a harsh society and we bear the scars of it. Our own environment has conditioned us, and we can't change. Oh, we could try, but it would crop up in little ways. Because of that, the natives could never genuinely like us. We'd never belong. Their own cultural pattern wouldn't allow them to accept us.
"Their cultural pattern is like the Fire and the Sword that were placed outside the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve were driven out, to keep it sacrosanct67. If you're an outsider, you stay outside. You can never come in."
He paused a moment, waiting for Templin to say something. Templin didn't.
"The natives have a word for it, Kava. It means, I suppose, different—not necessarily inferior, just different. We should have seen it as time went on. We weren't invited places; they seemed to avoid us. A natural reaction for them, I guess I have to admit."
Eckert cleared his throat huskily. "You see, what happened to Pendleton," he continued awkwardly, "is that he fell in love with paradise, but paradise would have nothing to do with him. By the time three years were up, he knew that he was an outcast in Eden. And he couldn't leave, to come back and try to forget. He was stranded68 in paradise and had to look forward to spending four more years there as a pariah69. He couldn't do it. And neither could you."
He was quiet for a moment, thinking of the cool, scented70 air and the warm sunshine and the happy kids playing on the grassy71 lanes.
"I suppose it didn't affect you at all, did it?" Templin asked venomously.
A shadow crossed Eckert's face. "You should know better than that, Ray. Do you think I'll ever forget it? Do you think I'll ever be satisfied with my own culture again?"
"What are you going to do about it?"
"It's dangerous to human beings, Ray. Looking at it brutally72, their culture has killed two of our people as surely as if Tunpesh were populated by murderous savages73. We'll probably send a larger commission, throw it open to commerce, try to change it."
Templin gripped the sides of the couch, his face strained and tense with anxiety. "What happens to it depends on the report you make, doesn't it?"
"Yes, it does."
"Then make up something in your report. Say the climate is bad for Earthmen. Say anything, but don't let them change Tunpesh!"
Eckert looked at him for a long moment, remembering.
"Okay, Ray," he said slowly. "We'll leave paradise alone. Strictly alone. It'll be put on the quarantine list."
He turned and left.
Behind him, Templin swiveled around in his chair and gazed bleakly74 at the tiny mote19 of yellow fading in the blackness of space.
The End
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ted
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| vt.翻晒，撒，撒开 | |
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subtlety
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| n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别 | |
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broach
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| v.开瓶，提出(题目) | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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doorway
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foliage
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modulated
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| 已调整[制]的，被调的 | |
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velvety
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| adj. 像天鹅绒的, 轻软光滑的, 柔软的 | |
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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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evading
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| 逃避( evade的现在分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出 | |
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acting
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sketchy
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| adj.写生的，写生风格的，概略的 | |
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protruding
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的现在分词 )；凸 | |
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margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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erase
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| v.擦掉；消除某事物的痕迹 | |
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risky
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| adj.有风险的，冒险的 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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mote
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scudding
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longingly
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butt
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sneak
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| vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行 | |
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lugging
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realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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strictly
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apparatus
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glowered
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| v.怒视( glower的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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slumped
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| 大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的过去式和过去分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下] | |
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allergy
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| n.(因食物、药物等而引起的)过敏症 | |
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serum
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grudgingly
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deliberately
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inhibited
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| a.拘谨的，拘束的 | |
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psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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scampered
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| v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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siestas
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| n.（气候炎热国家的）午睡，午休( siesta的名词复数 ) | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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anthropological
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| adj.人类学的 | |
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treatises
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| n.专题著作，专题论文，专著( treatise的名词复数 ) | |
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corroded
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| 已被腐蚀的 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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villains
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| n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 )；罪犯；（小说、戏剧等中的）反面人物；淘气鬼 | |
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gullible
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| adj.易受骗的；轻信的 | |
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glistened
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| v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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tunic
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| n.束腰外衣 | |
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torpor
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| n.迟钝；麻木；（动物的）冬眠 | |
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leash
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| n.牵狗的皮带，束缚；v.用皮带系住 | |
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sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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riddles
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| n.谜（语）( riddle的名词复数 )；猜不透的难题，难解之谜 | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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sector
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| n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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neurotics
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| n.神经官能症的( neurotic的名词复数 )；神经质的；神经过敏的；极为焦虑的 | |
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pushy
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| adj.固执己见的，一意孤行的 | |
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persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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sacrosanct
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| adj.神圣不可侵犯的 | |
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stranded
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| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
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pariah
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| n.被社会抛弃者 | |
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scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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brutally
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| adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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bleakly
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| 无望地，阴郁地，苍凉地 | |
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