The Creatures of Man (46 page)

The latter was no serious problem. Monte had ample nerve-ends under his shell, plus sufficient musculature and muscle-control.

When the job was done, Borat said, "On this trial run, Monte, let's keep the warp jump as short as possible. It has to be long enough for you to see what you can do about the turbulence, but not long enough to do you any harm. I would say a one-second jump . . ."

"A tenth of a second should suffice," responded the telepath. "A full second will be better, of course."

"Fine. Be sure to set the warp breakout on automatic, just in case. Go ahead whenever you're ready, and good luck."

Slowly, Monte's mountain-sized bulk lifted free of the grassy surface and drifted upward, semi-inert.

"If no more than this is achieved," the telepath commented happily, "this means of transportation is far superior to rolling."

"Fine. Don't try to warp before you're three planetary diameters up," said Borat.

Monte drifted on upward and out of sight of the members of the squad who were remaining on the ground. They settled down to wait.

An hour later he called, "I'm in position, and
here I go!"

Then immediately: "That . . . was . . . bad!"

"You couldn't fight it?" asked Borat.

"No. As you said, Hage Borat, prime-field turbulence is exceedingly fundamental. A quarter of a second was all I could tolerate."

"O.K. Come on back."

"Very well, but my return will be slow. I do not care to warp again."

The humans looked at the disappointment in each other's faces. "Well, that's that," Borat said inanely.

Cagoline called, "Hage, the Council of Commerce on Nexal is in a tizzy. I've told them the bad news."

"Do they have any bright ideas?"

"No, people in tizzies seldom get bright ideas," the communications man contributed. "They had their hopes way up. They were counting on gaining something important from our discovery of Monte, or his discovery of us. They still aren't reconciled to taking a licking on this."

"They may as well accept it," growled Borat, "and put some more push behind emo-monitor development." After a moment he added, "Tell them we're staying here to study Monte and mine some radioactives for him . . . and tell them to try to come up with a workable idea."

Monte was four days getting down from interplanetary space, and was appreciative of the concentrated uranium ore that awaited him.

"This is most generous of you," he told the squad, "in view of my inability to assist in the econo-war."

"You tried," shrugged Borat. "After all,
we're
supposed to be the experts on mobility, and it's no fault of yours if we can't find a way to transport you."

"Hey, I just thought of something!" yelped young Waiver. "If we have an insoluble problem here, why don't we stick the Primgranese with it? We simply let word of Monte leak out and they'll tie up thousands of their best spies, saboteurs and sundry infiltrators on him! Monte could spot them as fast as they arrived, and we could capture them."

Borat frowned. "I hate to admit the problem is insoluble, and that our only use for Monte is a largely negative one such as that. At best it would give us only a short-term victory, and at worst, well, the Primgranese might solve the problem." He paused and shrugged. "Although I'm coming to the conclusion that no solution exists. There's no way to get Monte to Nexal."

"Well, frankly, I'm
glad!'
chirped Baune. "Not that I want us to lose the econo-war, but it would be such a
shame
for Monte to go away and let his beautiful ecology fall apart! If those old tycoons and bureaucrats on Nexal want Monte's help so bad, they can come to
him
instead of him going to
them."

There was an instant of stunned silence. Then Borat leaped to his feet.

"That's it!" he bellowed jubilantly. "You've hit it, Baune!"

"An excellently suitable solution!" came Monte's thought.

The whole squad was suddenly swarming around Baune, everybody trying to hug her at once. "But . . . but—" she tried to protest amid the hubbub, "think what a mess those billions of people will make of Monte's ecology!"

"Not with Monte running things," said Borat happily.

A few months later Monte's world had become the new and bustling capital of the Lontastan Federation.

The others looked up when old Radge Morimet stomped into the chamber of the Primgranese High Board of Trade. He stood, turning his head slowly to look at each of the Board members while the emo-monitor sensor implanted in his chin gave him quick reads of their attitudes.

He read relaxed concentration in them—the kind of attitude that's great, he thought caustically, for a kid trying to work a fairly simple puzzle toy. Here and there he encountered flashes of annoyance, presumably with himself because of his late arrival and the less-than-totally-sane emo-reading they were getting from him.

Morimet was well aware that he was rattling their sensors with the slam-slamming signal-cry of
vengeance
—of a mind busy with schemes of mayhem to inflict on an enemy. He had the prestige of his age and his record of service to protect that chronic attitude. Had he been a lesser figure than he was, he would have been pressured long ago into the care of a psych-releaser to get his vengeance-fixation lifted.

Personally, he considered it a useful attitude to have in the conduct of a war. He wished some of his colleagues on the High Board shared it.

He sat, and his chair positioned him comfortably at his place along the rim of the Board table. "Please go on from where you were," he said.

"We were in the process of reviewing," said Domler, the chairman. Morimet grunted.

Domler said, "To sum up, twenty-three years ago the Lontasta Federation apparently discovered a nonhuman, telepathic intelligence, about which we still have only limited information. The telepath is referred to as 'Monte', which may be suggestive as to its size. The Lontastans shifted their capital from Nexal to what is presumed to be the world on which the creature was discovered, and which has been named Orrbaune. Again, we have an indication in this that the creature Monte is too massive to travel by warp.

"We have not," Domler continued, "been able to obtain direct verification of this information. Our infiltrators have not been able to penetrate to the new capital planet. They are detected by telepathic means as soon as they enter the Orrbaune system.

"We have learned, however, that the telepath is serving the Lontastan capital as a communication system, on a level far surpassing anything previously achieved. This balanced our previous advantage in personal coordination, obtained when we equipped our people with implanted emo-monitors, and enabled the Lontastans to compete with us on even terms.

"Then last year the Lontastans finally perfected an implantable emo-monitor of their own. They now have a decisive advantage over us, and we have in prospect nothing of sufficient magnitude to restore the balance.

"The econo-war, ladies and gentlemen, is in grave jeopardy."

This was not news to any of the members. The emotional atmosphere in the chamber darkened slightly toward depression, however, at Domler's reminder. Morimet's vengeance pattern slam-slammed even harder.

"Comments on my summary?" queried Domler.

Several members eyed Morimet expectantly. He frowned. "Not from me," he growled. "If somebody will come forward with something
new
to discuss, all of us might have comments to make. We've already hashed and rehashed the status of the war to the point of no return. The question is: What are we going to do about it?"

He glared around fiercely.

"Every possibility is being explored," replied Grayme, a touch of tartness in her tone and a flicker of anger flashing at Morimet. "For example, our exploratory teams are now examining an average of thirty-nine stars per standard day on the mere chance that the Monte-type lifeform may have evolved on more than one planet, and we can find a Monte of our own."

Farsit, adjutant of Armed Resort, said slowly, "Also, this Board might seriously consider, in this crisis, the use of overt force. Assuming Monte is a massive living creature, we could produce a high-megaton missile with a prime-field guidance system we are confident could home on this creature. I'm aware that such action would violate the traditions of centuries, but if no other course presents itself—"

"Well, we do have promising preliminary findings for more conventional approaches," Domler broke in hurriedly. "It is theoretically possible, for instance, to jam telepathic communications. Effective hardware is still decades away, but—"

Morimet was glowering. "I said something
new!"
he snapped. "We're going down the drain today, not twenty years from now, or not in whatever century we happen to stumble across a Monte of our own! As for bombing that telepath, if it worked at all it would put the econo-war on an unsustainable primitive level. Such absurd crudities as that was what put organized rivalry in such bad odor back in Earth-Only times. We fight Lontastan commerce, not Lontastan landscapes and populations! Besides, they could play the missile game, too, if they were pushed into it."

"Your desire for a new solution to our problem," replied Domler, showing an exasperation-read, "is one all of us share. Unfortunately, none of us has such a solution to offer . . . that is, Radge Morimet, unless you have something in mind."

Morimet stared down at the table. "What we need, at a minimum, is a counter to the speed with which the Lontastan Council of Commerce, aided by telepathic communication, can reach command decisions. Presumably, of course, Monte also improves communication at lower government levels, and perhaps in corporation offices as well. But it is the CofC that makes the important econo-war decisions for the Federation, just as this High Board does for the Commonality of Primgran. With telepathic communion, their CofC doesn't spend years, or even hours, verbally comparing information and opinions among the members, or quibbling over semantics. They
communicate,
perhaps not instantly, but a hell of a lot faster than we do.

"And we," Morimet paused, sweeping the chamber with a disdain-read, "we have us. With our emo-monitors, we're not as bad as an ancient stockholders' meeting or national congress, in that we can't practice concealment and deceit on each other. But we can consume endless amounts of time, as we're doing right now, while the Lontastans are
moving!

"In short, good colleagues, our problem is in this chamber. What do we do about it?"

The members stirred uncomfortably.

"We can throw your criticism in your face, Radge," replied Grayme. "What's new about that? We know the limitations that apply to this or any human governing body. As for the absence of concealment and deceit, I wonder if the absence is total here. That yammering vengeance-pattern of yours could conceal a multitude of unrecognizable intents."

Morimet grinned wolfishly. "Maybe it does. For example, my intent in bringing up the shortcomings of this High Board was not to enjoy the sound of my own voice. It was to propose that we do something about us."

"Do what?" asked Domler.

"Grayme just mentioned the 'limitations that apply to this or any human governing body'," Morimet responded. "She was in error. There is one purely human governing body to which the limitations wouldn't apply. I refer, of course, to an individual man or woman."

Everyone tried to reply at once. Morimet's emo-monitor hit him with a confusing flood of anger, disgust, and alarm. Then Farsit made himself heard.

"You object to bombing as a primitivism," he barked, "and then propose one-man rule!"

Morimet did not reply.

Gazing at him coolly, Grayme said, "Let's keep in mind the purposes of our econo-war. Man as an individual requires a demanding challenge at the group-activity level in order to maintain a cohesive, well-culled social structure that is motivated toward progress. Our war provides that, both for ourselves and for the Lontastans.

"A key requirement is group activity at all levels . . . that is,
teamwork.
What would the individual citizen ask himself when he learned the Commonality was being led not by a team . . . by this Board . . . but by an
individual?
Would he not be tempted to conclude that, if one person was better than a group for governing the Commonality, then he could govern himself on the basis of his strictly personal desires and goals without giving priority to the goals of his society?

"Don't forget, Radge, that man is by nature selfish, that self-interest is his strongest drive. That's a necessity for individual survival. Concern for the well-being of the society of which he is a member is also present, but it is less urgent and often must be aroused by the blandishments of others. His morale, as a team member, must be encouraged by reasoned explanation and pep talks.

"Certainly that morale would be dampened," she concluded, "if he saw the highest echelon of his team giving way to what the ancients called a 'personality cult'. It would be an invitation to him to pamper his own personality. Thus, we cannot allow the slightest taint of such a cult to enter this chamber."

Morimet glanced around to see if anyone else wanted to get some licks in before he replied.

Then he said, "Such a taint is already present here. I refer, of course, to myself. Any average citizen with an eccentricity such as mine would have been dragged to a psych-releaser long ago, but I, it seems, am a specially respected person. However, that's a rather quibbling point.

"I don't propose that this Board abdicate, but merely streamline itself. I say that decisions which require speed in the making—mainly those involving strategic and tactical matters—be left entirely to one person."

"Meaning practically every issue of importance that comes before this Board," growled Domler. "You're proposing more than a mere manager."

Morimet continued, "The Board would constantly review the actions of this top man, the one we can call the Executive, but would have no authority to interfere with those actions. The Board's chief authority would be the power to dismiss the Executive when, and if, it found him unsatisfactory. Thus, the Board would remain supreme, essentially, and the Executive would be its tool."