Saunders thought about it. "Next winter, eh? That's five months away. I guess I can wait—I'm a reasonable man. But no sharecropping; that's outl"
"I didn't say you could start homesteading in five months, Mr. Saunders. It may be twenty-one months or longer."
"No, indeedy!"
"Suit yourself. But you are confronted with a fact, not a theory. If you do have to wait and you won't work for another farmer, how do you propose to feed yourself and your family in the mean time?"
Mr. Saunders looked around and grinned, "Why, in that case, Mr. Chairman, I guess the government will just have to feed us until the government can come through on its end of the deal. I know my rights."
Mr. Tolley looked at him as if he had just bitten into an apple and found Saunders inside. "We won't let your children starve," he said slowly, "but as for you, you can go chew rocks. If you won't work, you won't eat."
Saunders tried to bluster. "You can't get away with it! I'll sue the government and I'll sue you as the responsible government official You can't—"
"Shut up!" Mr. Tolley went on more quietly, speaking to all of us. "We might as well get this point straight. You people have been enticed into coming out here by rosy promises and you are understandably disappointed. But your contract is with the Colonial Commission back on Earth. But you have no contract with the common council of Ganymede, of which I am chairman, and the citizens of Ganymede owe you nothing. We are trying to take care of you out of common decency.
"If you don't like what we offer you, don't start throwing your weight around with me; I won't stand for it. Take it up with the representative of the Immigration Service. That's what he is here for. Meeting's adjourned!"
But the immigration representative wasn't there; he had stayed away from the meeting.
12. Bees and Zeroes
We had been swindled all right. It was equally clear that there was no help for it. Some of the immigrants did see the Colonial Commission representative, but they got no comfort out of him. He had resigned, he said, fed up with trying to carry out impossible instructions five hundred million miles from the home office. He was going home as soon as his relief arrived.
That set them off again; if he could go home so could they. The Mayflower was still in orbit over us, taking on cargo. A lot of people demanded to go back in her.
Captain Harkness said no, he had no authority to let them deadhead half way across the system. So they landed back on the Commission representative, squawking louder than ever.
Mr. Tolley and the council finally settled it. Ganymede wanted no soreheads, no weak sisters. If the Commission refused to ship back those who claimed they were gypped and didn't want to stay, then the next shipload wouldn't even be allowed to land. The representative gave in and wrote Captain Harkness out a warrant for their passage.
We held a family powwow over the matter, in Peggy's room in the hospital—it had to be there because the doctors were keeping her in a room pressurized to Earth normal
Did we stay, or did we go back? Dad was stuck in a rut. Back Earthside he at least had been working for himself; here he was just an employee. If he quit bis job and elected to homestead, it meant working two or three G-years as a field hand before we could expect to start homesteading.
But the real rub was Peggy. In spite of having passed her physical examination Earthside she hadn't adjusted to Ganymede's low pressure. "We might as well face it," George said to Molly. "We've got to get Peg back to the conditions she's used to."
Molly looked at him; his face was as long as my arm. "George, you don't want to go back, do you?"
"That's not the point, Molly. The welfare of the kids comes first." He turned to me and added, "You're not bound by this, Bill. You are big enough to make up your own mind. If you want to stay, I am sure it can be arranged."
I didn't answer right away. I had come into the family get-together pretty disgusted myself, not only because of the run-around we had gotten, but also because of a run-in I had had with a couple of the Colonial kids. But you know what it was that swung me around? That pressurized room. I had gotten used to low pressure and I liked it. Peggy's room, pressurized to Earth normal, felt like swimming in warm soup. I could hardly breath. "I don't think I want to go back," I said.
Peggy had been sitting up in bed, following the talk with big eyes, like a little lemur. Now she said, "I don't want to go back, eitherl"
Molly patted her hand and did not answer her, "George," she said, "I've given this a lot of thought You don't want to go back, I know. Neither does Bill But we don't all have to go back. We can—"
"That's out, Molly," Dad answered firmly. "I didn't marry you to split up. If you have to go back, I go back."
"I didn't mean that. Peggy can go back with the O'Farrells and my sister will meet her and take care of her at the other end. She wanted me to leave Peggy with her when she found I was determined to go. It will work out all right." She didn't look at Peggy as she said it.
"But, Molly!" Dad said.
"No George," she answered, "I've thought this all out. My first duty is to you. It's not as if Peggy wouldn't be well taken care of; Phoebe will be a mother to her and—"
By now Peggy had caught her breath. "I don't want to go live with Aunt Phoebe!" she yelled and started to bawl.
George said, "It won't work, Molly."
Molly said, "George, not five minutes ago you were talking about leaving Bill behind, on his own."
"But Bill is practically a man!"
"He's not too old to be lonesome. And I'm not talking about leaving Peggy alone; Phoebe will give her loving care. No, George, if the womenfolk ran home at the first sign of trouble there never would be any pioneers. Peggy has to go back, but I stay."
Peggy stopped her blubbering long enough to say, "I won't go back! I'm a pioneer, too—ain't I, Bill?"
I said, "Sure kid, sure!" and went over and patted her hand. She grabbed onto mine.
I don't know what made me say what I did then. Goodness knows the brat had never been anything but a headache, with her endless questions and her insistence that she be allowed to do anything I did. But I heard myself saying, "Don't worry, Peggy. If you go. back, I'll go with you."
Dad looked at me sharply, then turned to Peggy. "Bill spoke hastily, Baby. You mustn't hold him to that."
Peggy said, "You did so mean it, didn't you, Bill?"
I was regretting it already. But I said, "Sure, Peggy."
Peggy turned back to Dad. "See? But it doesn't matter; we're not going back, not any of us. Please Daddy —I'll get well, I promise you I will. I'm getting better every day."
Sure, she was—in a pressurized room. I sat there, sweating, and wishing I had kept my big mouth shut. Molly said, "It defeats me, George. What do you think?"
"Mmmm—"
"Well?"
"Uh, I was thinking we could pressurize one room in our quarters. I could rig some sort of an impeller in the machine shop."
Peggy was suddenly all over her tears. "You mean I can get out of the hospital?"
"That's the idea, Sugar, if Daddy can work it."
Molly looked dubious. "That's no answer to our problems, George."
"Maybe not." Dad stood up and squared his shoulders. "But I have decided one thing; we all go, or we'll all stay. The Lermers stand together. That's settled."