A, B, C

The professor raised a quizzical eyebrow.

Joneny went doggedly on. “I’ve looked through the collection of their ballads Xamol Nella made in ’79, and there’s not a single metaphor or simile in any of them that could be called original or even relevant to life on a starship. There’s nothing but semimythical folktales couched in terms of sand and sea and cities and nations — some of them very interesting, no doubt, but complete fantasies with no relation to the people living and dying on the ships. I couldn’t be less interested in such cotton-candy effusions.”

The professor raised his other eyebrow. “Oh? Well, before I give you your assignment, I want to stress what I said in the beginning: the Star Folk did something never done before or since. They traveled through space — a lot of it — for a very long time. No one else has ever really been there, because the hyperspace drive actually takes you around interstellar space.” He laughed softly. “So perhaps they did find all the sand and sea and cities and nations there.” He raised a hand as Joneny started to object. “You haven’t been there, so you can’t disprove it. At any rate, they made what is perhaps the most dangerous journey imaginable, and for that alone they deserve to be studied.”

“What could be safer than interstellar space, sir?” Joneny’s tone was slightly contemptuous. “There’s nothing in it.”

Both the professor’s eyebrows fell. “Even if we knew that to be true — which we do not — what in blazes makes you think it would be safe for Earthmen in Earth starships? It’s within the realm of possibility that there were others. I remind you that although twelve ships left Earth, only ten reached the Leffer system, and two of those arrived empty. Perhaps there was something in the ‘safety’ of interstellar space — in the sand and the sea — which we do not know about yet.” Bony fingers pushed buttons below the screen. More notes flicked across. “You say you are familiar with the Nella’s ballad collection? Then no doubt you know ‘The Ballad of Beta-2.’ ” I want a complete historical analysis of that ballad — from primary sources. That will be your detail assignment for this unit.”

“But, Professor —!”

“Dismissed.”

Chapter Two

Joneny scanned Xamol Nella’s laconic footnote: *“Beta-2 was one of the starships that arrived at its destination, the Leffer system, empty. The ballad is extremely popular among the remaining Star Folk. (See Appendix for music.) Note the irregular repetition of the refrain, an original feature of many of the Star Folk ballads, as well as the slightly elliptical syntax.”

That’s really straining for originality, Joneny thought as he turned back to the ballad’s text:

Then came one to the City,
Over sand with her bright hair wild,
With her eyes coal black and her feet sole sore,
And under her arms a green-eyed child.
Three men stood on the City wall,
One was short and two were tall,
One had a golden trumpet clear
That he shouted through so all would hear
That one had come to the City,
Over sand…etc.
A woman stood by a Market stall,
The tears like diamonds on her cheek,
One eye was blind, she could not speak
But she heard the guards of the City call
Out: One has come to the City,
Over sand…etc.
One man stood by the courthouse door
To judge again as he’d judged before,
When he heard the guards of the City cry,
He said, “She’s come back to the City to die.”
Yes, she’s come back to the City,
Over sand…etc.
Another man stood on Death’s Head hill,
His face was masked, his hands were still.
Over his shoulder he carried a rope,
And he stood stock quiet on Death’s Head slope.
Three at the City wall cried: “Away!
Come back to the City another day.”
But down below the woman stood:
I came back like I said I would;
Yes, I’ve come back to the City,
Over sand with my bright hair…etc.
A time you gave me to travel far,
Find the green-eyed one who made you what you are.
Well, I’ve searched a City and the desert dunes,
And I’ve found no man who caused our ruin.
But I’ve come back to the City
Over sand…etc.
She walked through the gates and the children cried,
She walked through the Market and the voices died,
She walked past the courthouse and the judge so still,
She walked to the bottom of Death’s Head hill.
Down from the hill came the man with the rope,
Met her at the bottom of Death’s Head slope,
She looked at the City and she turned and smiled.
A one-eyed woman held her green-eyed child.
Fire and blood, meat, dung, and bone—
Down on your knees; steel, stone, and wood
Today are dust, and the City’s gone,
But she came back like she said she would.
Yes, one came back to the City,
Over sand, with her bright hair wild,
With her eyes coal black and her feet sole sore,
And under her arms a green-eyed child.

A complete historical analysis from primary sources meant he would have to visit the starships in person and find out what he could about the ballad from at least three different Star Folk. The “lab period” was twenty-four hours, but he could get a Time Adjustment through the Clearing Center of the University — which would mean that he could spend up to a week out at the starships while only twenty-four hours passed on campus. Joneny had no intention of spending more than the minimum requisite time on this research project. And, in order to make his task as easy as possible, he’d decided to preface his jaunt with a couple of hours more in the library.

As a start, he rescanned the Introduction to the Nella Star Folk Ballads. He found something vaguely interesting: “Of course I did not actually go inside the starships, because of time limitations and cultural incompatibility; but a robot recorder was allowed entry, and a fair amount of cooperation was shown. The recorder transmitted a printed copy of the words and lead sheets of the music and, of course, made a permanent recording. The only changes I have made are where an obvious mispositioning of words or phrases occurred. This project was carried out rather hurriedly, and such mistakes could be, I must point out, either a fault in the recorder’s copying device or simply a mistake on the part of the singer. Consult Variorum Edition for any discrepancies.”

Joneny sat back, feeling a conscientious researcher’s anger. Robot recorder, no actual entrance, the entire collection probably made in less time than he was going to spend on a single ballad. He could reconstruct it easily: Nella, somewhere in the vicinity of Leffer, suddenly getting the idea of sending his recorder in to see what he could pick up from the starships (probably did it while making some repairs or stuck in quarantine); leaving the machine on for six or seven hours; and then turning up with what appeared to be a scholarly collection of inaccessible folk songs. Such slipshod investigation infuriated Joneny, and he was sure that there was a lot of it in the inexhaustible archives of the Galactic Anthropology Library.