Deathworld (39 page)

"The other Disans, like Ulv here, managed to survive without turning
into such a creature. So why was it necessary for the magter to go
so far?"

"Nothing is necessary in evolution, you know that," Lea said. "Many
variations are possible, and all the better ones continue. You might
say that Ulv's people survive, but the magter survive better. If
offworld contact hadn't been re-established, I imagine that the
magter would slowly have become the dominant race. Only they won't
have the chance now. It looks as though they have succeeded in
destroying both races with their suicidal urge."

"That's the part that doesn't make sense," Brion said. "The magter
have survived and climbed right to the top of the evolutionary heap
here. Yet they are suicidal. How does it happen they haven't been
wiped out before this?"

"Individually, they have been aggressive to the point of suicide.
They will attack anything and everything with the same savage lack
of emotion. Luckily there are no bigger animals on this planet. So
where they have died as individuals, their utter ruthlessness has
guaranteed their survival as a group. Now they are faced with a
problem that is too big for their half-destroyed minds to handle.
Their personal policy has become their planetary policy—and that's
never a very smart thing. They are like men with knives who have
killed all the men who were only armed with stones. Now they are
facing men with guns, and they are going to keep charging and
fighting until they are all dead.

"It's a perfect case of the utter impartiality of the forces of
evolution. Men infected by this Disan life form were the dominant
creatures on this planet. The creature in the magters' brains was a
true symbiote then, giving something and receiving something, making
a union of symbiotes where all were stronger together than any could
be separately. Now this is changed. The magter brain cannot
understand the concept of racial death, in a situation where it must
understand to be able to survive. Therefore the brain-creature is no
longer a symbiote but a parasite."

"And as a parasite it must be destroyed!" Brion broke in. "We're not
fighting shadows any more," he exulted. "We've found the enemy—and
it's not the magter at all. Just a sort of glorified tapeworm that
is too stupid to know when it is killing itself off. Does it have
a brain—can it think?"

"I doubt it very much," Lea said. "A brain would be of absolutely no
use to it. So even if it originally possessed reasoning powers they
would be gone by now. Symbiotes or parasites that live internally
like this always degenerate to an absolute minimum of functions."

"Tell me about it. What is this thing?" Ulv broke in, prodding the
soft form of the brain-symbiote. He had heard all their excited talk
but had not understood a word.

"Explain it to him, will you, Lea, as best you can," Brion said,
looking at her, and he realized how exhausted she was. "And sit down
while you do it; you're long overdue for a rest. I'm going to try—"
He broke off when he looked at his watch.

It was after four in the afternoon—less than eight hours to go.
What was he to do? Enthusiasm faded as he realized that only half of
the problem was solved. The bombs would drop on schedule unless the
Nyjorders could understand the significance of this discovery. Even
if they understood, would it make any difference to them? The threat
of the hidden cobalt bombs would not be changed.

With this thought came the guilty realization that he had forgotten
completely about Telt's death. Even before he contacted the Nyjord
fleet he must tell Hys and his rebel army what had happened to Telt
and his sand car. Also about the radioactive traces. They couldn't
be checked against the records now to see how important they might
be, but Hys might make another raid on the strength of the
suspicion. This call wouldn't take long, then he would be free
to tackle Professor-Commander Krafft.

Carefully setting the transmitter on the frequency of the rebel
army, he sent out a call to Hys. There was no answer. When he
switched to receive all he heard was static.

There was always a chance the set was broken. He quickly twisted the
transmitter to the frequency of his personal radio, then whistled in
the microphone. The received signal was so loud that it hurt his
ears. He tried to call Hys again, and was relieved to get a response
this time.

"Brion Brandd here. Can you read me? I want to talk to Hys at once."

It came as a shock that it was Professor-Commander Krafft who answered.

"I'm sorry, Brion, but it's impossible to talk to Hys. We are
monitoring his frequency and your call was relayed to me. Hys and
his rebels lifted ship about half an hour ago, and are already on
the way back to Nyjord. Are you ready to leave now? It will soon
become dangerous to make any landings. Even now I will have to ask
for volunteers to get you out of there."

Hys and the rebel army gone! Brion assimilated the thought. He had
been thrown off balance when he realized he was talking to Krafft.

"If they're gone—well, then there's nothing I can do about it," he
said. "I was going to call you, so I can talk to you now. Listen and
try to understand. You must cancel the bombing. I've found out about
the magter, found what causes their mental aberration. If we can
correct that, we can stop them from attacking Nyjord—"

"Can they be corrected by midnight tonight?" Krafft broke in. He was
abrupt and sounded almost angry. Even saints get tired.

"No, of course not." Brion frowned at the microphone, realizing the
talk was going all wrong, but not knowing how to remedy it. "But it
won't take too long. I have evidence here that will convince you
that what I say is the truth."

"I believe you without seeing it, Brion." The trace of anger was
gone from Krafft's voice now, and it was heavy with fatigue and
defeat. "I'll admit you are probably right. A little while ago
I admitted to Hys too that he was probably right in his original
estimation of the correct way to tackle the problem of Dis. We have
made a lot of mistakes, and in making them we have run out of time.
I'm afraid that is the only fact that is relevant now. The bombs
fall at twelve, and even then they may drop too late. A ship is
already on its way from Nyjord with my replacement. I exceeded my
authority by running a day past the maximum the technicians gave me.
I realize now I was gambling the life of my own world in the vain
hope I could save Dis. They can't be saved. They're dead. I won't
hear any more about it."

"You must listen—"

"I must destroy the planet below me, that is what I must do.
That fact will not be changed by anything you say. All the
offworlders—other than your party—are gone. I'm sending a ship
down now to pick you up. As soon as that ship lifts I am going to
drop the first bombs. Now—tell me where you are so they can come
for you."

"Don't threaten me, Krafft!" Brion shook his fist at the radio in an
excess of anger. "You're a killer and a world destroyer—don't try
to make yourself out as anything else. I have the knowledge to avert
this slaughter and you won't listen to me. And I know where the
cobalt bombs are—in the magter tower that Hys raided last night.
Get those bombs and there is no need to drop any of your own!"

"I'm sorry, Brion. I appreciate what you're trying to do, but at the
same time I know the futility of it. I'm not going to accuse you of
lying, but do you realize how thin your evidence sounds from this
end? First, a dramatic discovery of the cause of the magters'
intransigency. Then, when that had no results, you suddenly remember
that you know where the bombs are. The best-kept magter secret."

"I don't know for sure, but there is a very good chance it is so,"
Brion said, trying to repair his defenses. "Telt made readings, he
had other records of radioactivity in this same magter keep—proof
that something is there. But Telt is dead now, the records
destroyed. Don't you see—" He broke off, realizing how vague and
unprovable his case was. This was defeat.

The radio was silent, with just the hum of the carrier wave as
Krafft waited for him to continue. When Brion did speak his voice
was empty of all hope.

"Send your ship down," he said tiredly. "We're in a building that
belonged to the Light Metals Trust, Ltd., a big warehouse of some
kind. I don't know the address here, but I'm sure you have someone
there who can find it. We'll be waiting for you. You win, Krafft."

He turned off the radio.

"Do you mean what you said, about giving up?" Lea asked. Brion
realized that she had stopped talking to Ulv some time ago, and had
been listening to his conversation with Krafft. He shrugged, trying
to put his feeling into words.

"We've tried—and almost succeeded. But if they won't listen, what
can we do? What can one man possibly do against a fleet loaded with
H-bombs?"

As if in answer to the question, Ulv's voice drowned him out,
the harsh Disan words slashing the silence of the room.

"Kill you, the enemy!" he said. "Kill you
umedvirk
!"

He shouted the last word and his hand flashed to his belt. In a
single swift motion he lifted his blowgun and placed it to his lips.
A tiny dart quivered in the already dead flesh of the creature in
the magter's skull. The action had all the symbolism of a broken
lance, the declaration of war.

"Ulv understands it a lot better than you might think," Lea said.
"He knows things about symbiosis and mutualism that would get him
a job as a lecturer in any university on Earth. He knows just what
the brain-symbiote is and what it does. They even have a word for it,
one that never appeared in our Disan language lessons. A life form
that you can live with or cooperate with is called
medvirk
. One
that works to destroy you is
umedvirk
. He also understands that
life forms can change, and be
medvirk
or
umedvirk
at different
times. He has just decided that the brain symbiote is
umedvirk
and he is out to kill it. So will the rest of the Disans as soon as
he can show them the evidence and explain."

"You're sure of this?" Brion asked, interested in spite of himself.

"Positive. The Disans have an absolute attitude towards survival;
you should realize that. Not the same as the magter, but not much
different in the results. They will kill the brain-symbiotes, even
if it means killing every magter who harbors one."

"If that is the case we can't leave now," Brion said. With these
words it suddenly became clear what he had to do. "The ship is
coming down now from the fleet. Get in it and take the body of
the magter. I won't go."

"Where will you be?" she asked, shocked.

"Fighting the magter. My presence on the planet means that Krafft
won't keep his threat to drop the bombs any earlier than the
midnight deadline. That would be deliberately murdering me. I doubt
if my presence past midnight will stop him, but it should keep the
bombs away at least until then."

"What will you accomplish besides committing suicide?" Lea pleaded.
"You just told me how a single man can't stop the bombs. What will
happen to you at midnight?"

"I'll be dead—but in spite of that I can't run away. Not now.
I must do everything possible right up until the last instant. Ulv
and I will go to the magter tower, try to find out if the bombs are
there. He will fight on our side now. He may even know more about
the bombs, things that he didn't want to tell me before. We can get
help from his people. Some of them must know where the bombs are,
being native to this planet."

Lea started to say something, but he rushed on, drowning out her words.

"You have just as big a job. Show the magter to Krafft, explain the
significance of the brain-parasite to him. Try to get him to talk to
Hys about the last raid. Try to get him to hold off the attack. I'll
keep the radio with me and as soon as I know anything I'll call in.
This is all last resort, finger in the dike kind of stuff, but it is
all we can do. Because if we do nothing, it means the end of Dis."

Lea tried to argue with him, but he wouldn't listen to her. He only
kissed her, and with a lightness he did not feel tried to convince
her that everything would be all right. In their hearts they both
knew it wouldn't be but they left it that way because it was the
least painful solution.

A sudden rumbling shook the building and the windows darkened as
a ship settled in the street outside. The Nyjord crew came in with
guns pointed, alert for anything.

After a little convincing they took the cadaver, as well as Lea,
when they lifted ship. Brion watched the spacer become a pinpoint in
the sky and vanish. He tried to shake off the feeling that this was
the last time he would see any of them.

"Let's get out of here fast," he told Ulv, picking up the radio,
"before anyone comes around to see why the ship landed."

"What will you do?" Ulv asked as they went down the street towards
the desert. "What can we do in the few hours we have left?" He
pointed at the sun, nearing the horizon. Brion shifted the weight
of the radio to his other hand before replying.

"Get to the magter tower we raided last night, that's the best chance.
The bombs might be there.... Unless you know where the bombs are?"

Ulv shook his head. "I do not know, but some of my people may.
We will capture a magter, then kill him, so they can all see
the
umedvirk
. Then they will tell us everything they know."

"The tower first then, for bombs or a sample magter. What's the
fastest way we can get there?"

Ulv frowned in thought. "If you can drive one of the cars the
offworlders use, I know where there are some locked in buildings
in this city. None of my people know how they are made to move."