The Rings of Tantalus (15 page)
Conrad said: “Wipe the bloody sweat away.”
Kwango obliged. “You feel better?”
“No, I feel terrible. Now give me the funny. I think I can take one and one only… You were right. I’m mincemeat. After you have uttered, call Lieutenant Smith and make your peace with God.”
“The cream of the joke, Commander, is that the refugees had yellow tails, and their oppressors had black tails… There is nothing new under the sun.”
Conrad smiled, and hurt himself dreadfully. “You stupid black bastard,” he mumbled.
”
White trash
,” retorted Kwango equably. “Your superiority complex hasn’t done you much good, has it, Commander?”
But Conrad wasn’t listening. He was unconscious.
Lieutenant Smith came in. She glanced at her patient, then she gazed at Kwango. “What the hell have you been doing?”
“He’s a very obstinate man, Lieutenant. He wanted the full story.”
“And you gave it to him?”
“Yes, maam.”
“You’re a fool, Kwango.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And don’t call me ma’am ever again. You are fined—”
“One booze ration?”
“Your entire supply,” she snapped furiously. “Now get out before I give you a drop-kick that will knock you through the bulkhead.”
“Yes, Lieutenant.” But Kwango didn’t go. He stayed while Indira checked Conrad over. “How is he?”
“He’ll live,” she said grimly. “He’ll live to wish he hadn’t.” Suddenly, she smiled. “You and he are very much alike, Kurt. Despite the obvious differences, both of you are brilliant, resourceful and loyal.”
Kwango gazed at her in amazement.
“You are also small boys, heavily disguised as big stupid idiots.”
“Lieutenant, there is one important difference,” said Kwango with dignity. “I have some feelings for my fellow men, but that mean bastard just doesn’t care—so long as he delivers.”
Conrad opened one eye blearily. “I heard that,” he said. “Kwango, I fine you—”
“Boss, you can’t hurt me no more. De good Lieutenant has just broken me.”
Indira smiled. “Kurt, go pour yourself a double Scotch. You look as if you need it.”
Kwango’s mouth fell open. Finally he managed to speak. “But you said—”
“Medical prescription,” retorted Indira. “You are in a state of shock.”
Kwango grinned. “Lieutenant, I never been more shocked in my life.”
Phase Ten
MISSION ENDS
Conrad, looking bronzed and very fit, stood by the side of a large steel box which had been carefully set up by the robots Matthew and Mark in Pushkin Square in the small log-cabin town of Kheladelphia. As yet, Kheladelphia possessed no citizens. But they would come. Soon they would come. They would come one at a time out of the matter transmitter, each in a titanium cylinder that was an independent suspended animation unit.
Conrad had never been able to understand how the matter transmitter worked, though Matthew had tried to explain the theory of sub-spatial matter transmission. Matthew was fully conversant with both theory and practice. He had seen it all, done it all before. Conrad remembered briefly that dramatic moment when the first colonist had rolled through on Kratos. A doctor. Dr. John Whatsis-name. Well, it didn’t matter what his name was. Even now, no doubt, he was carrying out his duties in a thriving town on a recently colonised planet on the other side of the sky…
Still, this matter transmission was an unnerving phenomenon. Conrad knew he would never get used to it, never understand it. The important thing was that it worked. The white man’s magic. How else could it be described? You could chill somebody on Terra, fifty-six light years away, then have him pop out in a titanium sausage on
Tantalus, ready for resuscitation. The white man’s magic…
Also present with Commander Conrad were Lieutenant Smith, Kurt Kwango and Ruth Zonis. The surviving Expendables. They had earned their right to be present at the first arrival. They had made it all possible.
It seemed a long time now since the monkey robots had made their death-or-glory attack on the
Santa Maria
. It was a long time. It was more than nine-E-months. Since then, much had been accomplished. The rest of the planet had been surveyed. The entire surface had been subjected to photographic and magnetometric analysis. Rich deposits of iron, bauxite, manganese and copper had been discovered. The existence of oil fields had been proved. The oceans were teeming with various types of fishes, many suitable for human consumption.
And, finally, Kheladelphia had been built—twenty kilometres south of the dead ring system. So here was a planet where mankind could have another chance…
Conrad remembered vividly the building of Kheladelphia. Everyone had taken part in it—the four Expendables and the robots. The Expendables, in their exo-skeletons, had uprooted the trees and shaped the logs, the robots had trimmed them to size. Then the town had been laid out—a simple plan. Four main streets: North Street, South Street, East Street, West Street—all meeting at Pushkin Square. Then the houses, the storage chambers, the hospital and the school had been built. , It was Ruth Zonis who had named the town Kheladelphia. She did not give her reasons. No one asked for them. But Conrad understood.
Now he gazed at the large steel box as if hypnotised. It has its own built-on atomic generator to produce the fantastic voltage for the receiving field. It also had a vacuum-sealed door.
There was a great hiss as all air was pumped out of the receiving chamber.
“Reception sequence one commencing,” said Matthew. “All systems normal. Molecular echoes matching pattern equation. Sequence begins. All systems still normal. Physical resolution now begins. All systems continue normal.”
The Expendables gazed intently at the matter receiver. There was no external change. But inside the evacuated black box a miracle was happening. Matter—metal, flesh, bone, blood—that had burst through the barrier of light-years as a fantastic blast of sub-spatial radiation was now resuming its normal form.
“Well,” said Conrad, trying to make his voice sound matter-of-fact, “pretty soon we’ll have company.”
Ruth Zonis stood close to Kwango and shivered, though the air was warm. Kwango put an arm round her protectively. “Take it easy, Ruth. This is how we shipped them in on Kratos. It works.”
Zonis and Kwango had had something going for quite a time now, thought Conrad. He hoped they gave each other some pleasure. They had worked hard.
“I wish—I wish,” said Ruth, “that Ahmed and Alexei could be here.” She looked at Kwango nervously, then added: “Just at this moment, I mean.”
Conrad raised an eyebrow, glanced at Lieutenant Smith and shrugged. But Indira knew what she meant. So did Kwango.
“Little one, they are here,” he said gently. “They helped to make it possible.”
“Physical resolution completed,” said Matthew. “All systems normal. Unit one ready for disposal. Instructions required.”
“Open the chambers,” said Conrad. “Wheel the unit out.”
“Decision noted,” said Matthew. “Execution proceeds.”
There was a short hissing noise as air was readmitted to the matter receiver. Matthew released the vacuum seal. The door of the matter receiver swung open.
Mark pulled out a titanium cylinder. It moved easily on its built-in rollers. Identification had been stencilled on the cylinder.
In large letters there was the word: Engineer. Underneath that there was small lettering: Jean Mitterand, age twenty-seven, I.Q. 149, road-builder, French citizen.
“Welcome to Tantalus, Monsieur Mitterand,” said Conrad to the cylinder. “You will have many roads to construct.” He turned to Mark. “Wheel him to the storage chamber.”
“Decision noted. Execution proceeds.”
Matthew said: “Permission requested to recommence reception cycle.”
“Permission granted.”
“Decision noted. Execution proceeds.”
The next one came out of the matter receiver a few minutes later. The cylinder was stencilled: Doctor. Tore Rudefors, age thirty-three, I.Q. 157, specialist gynecology, Swedish citizen.
“Welcome, Tore Rudefors. May you deliver many babies on Tantalus,” said Conrad. “Wheel him away.”
And so it went on.
Conrad stayed to watch the arrival of the next ten. Kwango and Zonis left at number five. Presumably, they had something better to do than watch titanium cylinders being wheeled out of the matter receiver and placed in storage.
Lieutenant Smith stayed.
She moved close to Conrad. She held his hand. He didn’t seem to notice.
Unit eleven—Teacher: Natalie Remarque, I.Q. 131, Australian citizen—was wheeled away.
“James! It’s all happening and it’s all O.K.”
“Yes, love, it’s all happening and it’s all O.K. Indira, can you bring ten out tomorrow? Matthew can help you with resuscitation procedure. Dammit, we can all help.”
”
Deja
v
u
,” said Indira. “It was like this on Kratos. You remember?”
“Yes, I remember.”
“Then remember Applecross also. It is important.”
“We’ll
get
there again,” said Conrad. “I promise.”
Indira smiled. “I’ll hold you to that.”
Conrad scratched his silver eye-patch nervously. “Can you bring ten out tomorrow?”
“James Conrad, you are a bastard and I love you.”
“Yes, but—”
Indira flung her arms round him and there were no more buts.
MEMORANDUM
To: Secretary General, United Nations.
From: Director, Extra-Solar Planets Evaluating and Normalising Department. Most Secret. For your eyes only. Subject: The proving of Tantalus, 7th planet Alpha Leonis (Regulus), distance 56 light years. 9th January 2076 S.E.T.
Para 1
. With the successful proving of Tantalus and the transmission of the first thousand colonists, Third World opposition to the ExPEND programme is rapidly fading. This is partly due to the fact that a high proportion of Third World candidates have been accepted for current and future colonisation projects. Bearing this new situation in mind, I earnestly recommend that no action be taken in the case of Lisa Uhlmann. Commander Conrad requests that she should be charged with mutiny, destruction of U.N. property and attempted murder. Technically, he is within his rights in requiring trial by court-martial. However, the evidence that the
defence
might produce in such a trial could be embarrassing not only to certain eminent Third World statesmen (who now give tacit approval to our programme) but to ExPEND itself. When Commander Conrad is appraised of the current political situation, I do not think he will press his legitimate demand for a trial. If he should do so, however, I have sworn statements from three distinguished psychiatrists of international repute that Uhlmann has experienced extreme trauma and is unfit to plead.
Para 2
. The proved existence on Tantalus of a now defunct colony of technologically advanced creatures has created a delicate problem. The international scientific community is in furore, and I have been deluged with applications from archaeologists, anthropologists and scientists of almost every class for permission to investigate and analyse the remains of the rings of Tantalus. It appears to me that we shall have to mount an expedition quite separate from the colonisation programme. May I have your advice? If such an expedition were mounted, substantial additional funds would be needed to finance it. As you are aware, the ExPEND budget is allocated solely for the proving and colonisation of extra-solar planets.
Para 3
. The choice of the name Kheladelphia for the first city on Tantalus has been of immense value in cooling the traditional Arab-Israeli hostility. Naturally, the account of Ahmed Khelad’s assault upon Ruth Zonis remains classified information. Zonis is an intelligent woman. She appreciates what would happen if the truth were known. I recommend that she be awarded the U.N. Gold Medallion for services rendered on Tantalus.
File Closed
Edmund Cooper was born in Cheshire in 1926. He served in the Merchant Navy towards the end of the Second World War and trained as a teacher after its end. He began to publish SF stories in 1951 and produced a considerable amount of short fiction throughout the ’50s, moving on, by the end of that decade, to the novels for which he is chiefly remembered. His works displayed perhaps a bleaker view of the future than many of his contemporaries’, frequently utilising post-apocalyptic settings. In addition to writing novels, Edmund Cooper reviewed science fiction for the
Sunday Times
from 1967 until his death in 1982.
Collections
Jupiter Laughs
Voices in the Dark
A World of Difference
Novels
All Fools’ Day (1966)
The Cloud Walker (1973)
A Far Sunset (1967)
Five to Twelve (1968)
Kronk (1970) (aka Son of Kronk)
The Last Continent (1970)
Merry Christmas Ms Minerva (1978)
The Overman Culture (1971)
Prisoner of Fire (1974)
Seahorse in the Sky (1969)
Seed of Light (1959)
The Slaves of Heaven (1975)
The Tenth Planet (1973)
Transit (1964)
Uncertain Midnight (1958) (aka Deadly Image)
Who Needs Men? (1972)
Ferry Rocket (1954) (Writing as George Kinley)
The Expendables (Writing as Richard Avery)
- The Expendables: The Deathworms of Kratos (1975)
- The Expendables: The Rings of Tantalus (1975)
- The Expendables: the Wargames of Zelos (1975)
- The Expendables: The Venom of Argus (1976)