Vic, don't you see the principle that's involved? Every single instance of territorial aggression began . . .
Don't sweat history now, Ken, the storemaster suggested rudely. I don't want to think about it. I just want to take each day on Doona as it comes, enjoy the planet as much as I can . . .
And find out where the Hrrubans mine those stones? Ken asked cynically.
That, too, Vic admitted. Besides, I'd like to see what they intend to use to span that river. Can you find out?
Victor's argument is valid, Hu Shih said.
Thus dies noble principle, Ken thought as he glared from colony leader to storemaster. And yet we won't be here long; it does not use a cultural concept they don't already grasp and what the hell!
Hrrula, Ken said aloud, pausing in fascination at the way the native's ears twitched. He pointed to the suspension beams which Hrrula had scratched in the dust. Rla? and he enunciated carefully, wondering if he'd swallow his tongue one day getting out that rolled 'r'.
Hrrula nodded gravely, gesturing toward the rla-wood tree behind him.
They use that porous wood? asked Vic eagerly.
Rla, Ken corrected him.
"Errla," Vic growled out. Hrrula shook his head patiently and repeated the sound which Victor dutifully tried to mimic. "I can't get that 'r' sound, Ken," he groaned under his breath. "But that wood wouldn't bear enough weight. It's too damned porous.''
Ken rubbed his temples, trying to drag appropriate words from his small Hrruban vocabulary. Shaking his head at his limitations, he knelt down again at the drawing. Carefully he drew a wide band to indicate the river. He then sketched the footings on both sides of the river, well back from the verge. He tapped the vertical elevation, showing the suspension, pantomiming the height of the trees with the length required to span the gap. Hrrula nodded solemn understanding.
Hrrubans, Hrrula said softly, indicating the adults present, hayumans, he said carefully, tapping Ken and Vic, jerking his head over his shoulder in the direction of the colony, rla i zamat; rrigam.
Rrigam means build? asked Vic.
Guess so, Ken answered. Verb falls at the end of the sentence near as I can figure. I still don't think we should agree, he muttered under his breath and looked around to see Hrrestan pointing vigorously to the bridge sketch, nodding his head emphatically.
Um zamat rrigam. La!
After one last attempt to explain that the Terrans would not be staying, Ken gave in.
The bridge was planned. And planned, according to Sam Gaynor's truculent opinion, with a sound knowledge of engineering principles, until he found out that rla wood was to be used.
That damned porous wood . . .
Rla, Ken corrected automatically.
Erla, then, snapped Gayor, are too pulpy to hold any weight at all, not to mention a span. Damn fool notion.
They treat the wood, Sam, Vic Solinari explained. Don't know with what, although Harrula tried to explain. But he showed me the coating on the house timber and I couldn't crack it with a ball-peen hammer.
And the house's owner politely requested him not to chisel it, Ken added with a grin at Vic's embarrassment.
I hope they know what we're doing, Gaynor said, for he could not remain long in Hrruban company without titanic sneezing. Moody had treated Gaynor empirically with massive antihistamines but could not isolate the specific factor without examining an Hrruban. Such an occasion had not yet presented itself.
It worked out by the end of that day that the Terrans would cut timber for the footings on their side of the river, the Hrrubans on theirs; the Hrrubans indicated they already had sufficient timber cut for the span.
The foundations had been dug on both sides when two Hrrubans arrived with a large wooden tub full of a hot gray viscose liquid.
Taking paddle-like brushes, Hrrula and Hrrestan began to coat the footing logs, working quickly and taking care not to splash the hot liquid on their bodies. The logs for the footings were lifted into position by Hrrubans wearing protective hide gloves. More liquid was sloshed on the now upright pilings. After an arbitrary pause, the Hrrubans filled in the dirt around the footings and turned to the first of the span logs. Again they worked swiftly, coating the log and then easing it out across the rapid flow of the river until it was in its assigned place. It was rapidly anchored with tough vines which were also painted. The Terrans watched as, after a second pause, Hrrula tested the log with a judicious claw. Apparently satisfied with the hardening of the paint, Hrrula astonished everyone by leaping up and racing down the length of the log to prove its firmness. He then indicated that the Terrans should examine the Hrruban workmanship and duplicate it on their side of the river.
It's the same transparent stuff, Vic assured Gaynor after he had poked and scraped, and made no mark. Tough as a plastic.
Seals the wood and strengthens it, huh? Gaynor murmured, sniffling constantly as he examined the span and the coated footings. By God, we could use that wood for pretty nearly all our building needs and not have to wait for a plastics extruder. Find out how they make that, will you, Ken? And the rest of you guys, c'mon. Let's build our end just the way they did.
Good? Hmmm? asked Hrrula, grinning at Reeve as the skiff took the first load of men back to their side.
Very good, Ken agreed. What is it by you called? he asked carefully in Hrruban.
''Rlba,'' Hrrula replied and Reeve groaned.
The 'l' became liquid but the 'r' took a savage roll and the upward accent fell on the final vowel.
Hrrunka, another of the Hrrubans whom Ken could now recognize on sight, was stirring the rlba, which had been placed over a small fire to keep it at boiling point. The smell was pungent, reminiscent of the scent exuded by rla bark when sun-warmed. Hrrunka gestured Ken over, pointed to the rlabans behind him, pantomimed boring a hole, the sap running out, heating the sap to boiling point, brushing it on, waiting an arbitrary time; then, Hrrunka indicated, the sap hardened completely.
By the end of that day, the bridge was completed, twenty-six feet long, seven feet wide, sturdy enough for the colonists' power sled, constructed of native materials and with native ingenuity.
Chapter VIII. INTERFERENCE
"IF " AND THE First Speaker's voice projected sharply through the startled hubbub caused by Third's empassioned peroration, "we abandon the planet now, with no logical explanation for the disappearance and I see no logical explanation short of killing our people outright and leaving their bodies to be found . . ."
Really, sir, and Third was on his feet with indignation, that solution your solution is the most . . .
Then let me continue!
The stern disapproval in First's voice effectively quelled Third's brashness.
"By leaving the planet without logical explanation for such a retreat," and he delicately emphasized that word, stirring long forgotten pride in many chests, "we invite trouble to come to us here! At the moment, we can contain it there " he pointed to the star map and the red-flagged planet under discussion, it was obviously at a safe distance from the home system. "And we can probe, observe and, above all, think deeply on which course to pursue."
The Prime Rule already states every single contingency . . .
The Third Speaker's reliance on that Rule struck the Chief as totally inconsistent. For a person who constantly quoted platitudes and proverbs, he showed a remarkably different stripe in a crisis which he couldn't explain with a trite phrase.
The Prime Rule states every contingency-except this one, the Fourth Speaker in charge of Education interrupted. As any fool could see, and Fourth's nostrils twitched with disapproval the planet had no evidence of sentient life when we established our communities. The project prints out most creditable results in the short time it has been in effect. I do wish, now, that we had not specified that these units be withdrawn during the long cold season. The youngsters could just as easily have taken instruction there as here and we might not have lost the colony.