The two Psychlo females were still inside and very surprised to see him. They gave him a hand putting her back onto the bed. As Jonnie was taking off her breathe-gas mask, one of the females said, “I suppose you brought her back here to order us to kill her.”
That did it. Jonnie kicked them both out. He got a chair and sat down outside the atmosphere lock. He was going to sit there all four hours and make very, very sure nobody else got any odd Psychlo ideas! At the end of that time, he hoped Chirk would come to. But in any event he was prepared to wait until she did.
Chapter 8
Unfortunately for Jonnie it proved to be a rather well-traveled passageway– or people found excuses to travel it just so they could see him there.
Chrissie found him. I m awfully sorry we overlooked Pattie. I thought you were coming right behind us and had her, and then when I saw she wasn't there, I ran out again but you had taken off.” Pattie was standing behind her looking at Jonnie.
“But that isn't what I must talk to you about,” said Chrissie. She produced from behind her an envelope and began to take things out of it. One glimpse of them told Jonnie that Dries had been up to something else. They were the proof sheets, all marked “Specimen, not valid for exchange,” of the new Galactic Bank money. There were four coins of different size and four bills of different size. The coins were different geometric shapes, well stamped. The paper and printing were excellent. Jonnie couldn't imagine what was wrong with them.
“This eleventh-of-a-credit coin,” said Chrissie, “is not too bad. It 's green and you can't see it. The three-elevenths coin, this blue one, is not too awful because you can't see it either. This red metal, five-elevenths coin is barely passing. The yellow, six-elevenths coin just won't do.”
Hearing Chrissie expound upon money was novel. She had probably never used it in her whole life.
“But the smallest to the largest paper bank notes are what you should be concerned about. I told Dries I was very upset! This is the one-credit note. And this here is what they call the eleven-credit note but it says,
"Psychlo number system,” said Jonnie. “It’s based on eleven, not ten. 'Ten' means one unit of elevens plus zero units of ones which equals eleven. So an eleven-credit note would be written in numbers as 'one-zero.'
. ..
"I’ll take your word for it,” sighed Chrissie, “but that's not what I’m mad about. Here, look at these. This one is...the...one-zero-zero credit note. It says 'one hundred' but it's the same as a hundred twenty-one one-credit notes. Yes, yes, I know...Psychlo numbers.” She showed Jonnie one more. “And this one is the one-three-three-one credit note.”
Jonnie had been looking at them. The coins had larger and larger stamps on them. The bank notes looked startlingly glossy with their shimmer paper. "I’m sorry,” he said, “I don't see anything wrong with them.”
“It’s the face!” said Chrissie. “Look. On the coins they have your face in profile and you can't see it on the smaller ones but you can on the yellow one because it's big enough. The nose! Your nose isn't turned up at the end!”
Jonnie took the coins. Yes, it sure was a turned-up nose.
“And these bills. I don't care,” said Chrissie, “if it is hard to reproduce accurately like Dries said. They made your skin grayish. The eyes have too big a lid. And Jonnie, your ears aren't like that! These look more like gills!”
Jonnie took the bills. Sure enough, they had changed the portraits! Then he barked a laugh. He still looked enough like himself for no real dispute to rise. But they had shifted it over so he slightly resembled a Selachee.
Great! Less chance of being pointed at in the hills. But Jonnie had learned a lot about diplomacy. "I’m sorry you don't like them, Chrissie."
“Oh, it's not that! It just doesn't look like you.”
“I’m afraid it would cost an awful lot and make a lot of trouble to change them now,” said Jonnie. “Maybe the next issue!”
That seemed to mollify her and she put them back in the envelope and walked off, noting from the way he seemed to have nailed himself down that he might have to be fed lunch there.
Pattie stayed behind and sat down on the floor. She still seemed very thoughtful but she was not as dull as she had been.
Ker came up the ramp, followed by about thirty assorted ex-marines-
Jambitchows, Drawkins, and a couple of Hockners. Ker went on by with a friendly hello. But when the others got abreast of Jonnie they suddenly realized who was sitting there. They recoiled so hard against the far side of the passage that they bounced. They instantly raced up to be in front of Ker.
Jonnie had not missed it. He called out,
“Ker!”
The midget Psychlo walked back to him, leaving his group standing up the passageway. "Ker," said Jonnie, “what have you been telling those ex-soldiers?”
“Nothing,” said Ker, amber eyes glowing with innocence back of the faceplate. “They're just kind of hard to handle sometimes.”
“Well,” said Jonnie, “whatever that 'nothing' was, you straighten it out.”
“Of course!” said Ker. He turned and yelled up at the group. “It’s all right! He isn't mad at you right now!”
They all seemed so relieved, Jonnie gave Ker a very suspicious eye. The midget yelled at the Hockner ex-officer to take them to the garage and get busy washing down machines and then turned back to Jonnie. “You had me scared there for a moment,” he said. “I thought you'd really caught up with me.”
“Something else?” said Jonnie.
Ha. Ha. Well, it wasn't true that he had been the only one here when everybody including the Mountains of the Moon people had taken off for Edinburgh to help. They'd left their old ones and their kids. And he'd gotten bored just sitting with a blast rifle in his lap up the corridor there and he'd found one of the old ones spoke a funny kind of Dutch– that's an Earth language, or was. And Ker had found a vocoder in the Chinko bin that had had Dutch in it, so he'd amused himself by telling the old one stories to relay to the kids that were always hanging around.
The children had been pretty shy at first, thinking he was a monster and all, so he'd told them that he was really human. That he had a human mother and father. But his mother had been scared by a Psychlo and so when he was born, he looked this way.
But he'd be honest with Jonnie and level with him because he was a boyhood friend and Ker confessed he was only half-human.
“Not to change the subject,” said Ker, doing it, “but I heard you say something about handling a problem. I can't wash vehicles forever. When are you going to get busy and nail Maz so I can get this mine going again?”
"I’m working on it right now!” said
Jonnie. He looked at his watch. Another hour and a half to go. And then he'd have an idea whether it would fully work or not.
Chapter 9
Perhaps because she had been so weak, it was five hours and Chirk had not stirred.
Jonnie had moved his chair in to the foot of the bed and sat there with an air mask on. Pattie had tried to come in but Jonnie had blocked her until he could find another mask. Breathe-gas could send one into convulsions. So Pattie now sat with her back to the wall, cross-legged on the floor, watching Chirk.
The Psychlo's breathing seemed to be less shallow, or was he just being hopeful?
No, he wasn't! Chirk had moved a paw. Very slight, but she had moved it.