Martin tried to laugh reassuringly, and discovered that it was impossible to laugh in a whisper. He said, “The way I see it, the First Father has rewarded us with water, extra blankets, our boots, and a measure of privacy because we have been good, cooperative little children. He has implied that more goodies will be forthcoming if we continue to behave. The only thing he has left to offer is the doctor. So I would say that next time we see him he will begin to tell us exactly what he wants from us, and medical attention is the one thing he can offer which doesn’t involve a risk to himself.
“The next meeting will be crucial.”
Chapter 24
UN his next visit the First’s manner toward them was almost friendly. He began by admitting that they could increase their obligation to his Family and, through him, help the rest of the population if a method could be devised for using that help while ensuring that they could not simply leave the planet once they returned to their mother ship.
Verbal misdirection had been used to bring about their imprisonment, he explained, and it was likely that they would try to use the same method of effecting their escape. He asked them to give long and serious consideration to this problem because, until it was resolved, there could be no real progress toward improving their present unsatisfactory conditions. In the meantime he wanted to discuss some of his long-term plans with them in the hope that they, using the capabilities of their hypership, would suggest methods by which these might be brought to early fruition.
The First was trying very hard to project the image of an aging, careworn, and unselfish leader striving to maintain the order he had created out of the terrible post-Exodus chaos. By offering the close friendship, protection, and spiritual solace of a continent-wide family unit, he had achieved much during those three generations. But there were many, principally among the older Keidi, who would not recognize the value of what he was trying to do, nor realize that the only way to make long-term progress in a world of widely scattered communities was to renounce the individualism of the past and unite into a single family that was planet-wide.
That family would have a single Father, loving, strong, and impartial toward all his children, and he would be the sole authority and arbiter in all matters temporal and spiritual. He would inspire and direct, and when necessary chastise, those who quarreled among themselves or indulged in activities for personal or blood-family gain. And he would constantly remind them of their tremendous common purpose, which was to return Keida to its former glories in spite of the terrible crime committed against them by the hated Galactics.
Martin, who had not spoken since the First’s arrival, said carefully, “It is a laudable ambition, but your hatred of the Galactics is undeserved. After all, we were sent here to help you.”
It was difficult to know whether the First was annoyed by the interruption or pleased because it enabled him to make another point.
He said, “The crime committed against us was great and any assistance that it is in your power to offer by way of recompense is ridiculously inadequate. Know also that I am the only being on the whole Estate willing to abase myself to the point of accepting your help. The others would spurn such an offer, would insist that we progress, however slowly, unaided. But I am wiser, more realistic, and older than they, and must think and move quickly if I am to ensure the continuance of what I have begun to build…”
Through his organizational ability the First had amassed personal obligations which would require a thousand lifetimes to discharge, and there were even stronger, nonmaterial bonds of personal loyalty- to the First Father and his descendants which would ensure that these obligations would be honored long after his death. But that situation obtained only in the family Estate, whose members had security, shelter, and food proportional to the work performed. When he died there were those who had plans, and had already formed alliances, to break up the Estate and divide it among themselves. If they were successful, the alliances would soon be broken, war would divide and subdivide these unstable groupings. All of the pre-Exodus knowledge would be lost, and Keida’s descent into savagery would be rapid and its subsequent rise, if a rise was possible, slow indeed.
“It is to avoid this millennia-long night of barbarism,” the First went on, “that I must bring the others into my Family without delay. The Estate is not yet large enough to withstand concerted hostile action against it, but it is large enough for the others to feel threatened by our size and strength. By whatever means becomes available, whether it is force, trade and economic agreements, or psychological pressure exerted with the help of you Galactics, these dissidents must be shown that my long-term plan for Keida is infinitely more important than any short-lived, petty advantages that might be gained through breaking up and dividing my Estate among them.
“Many times I have tried to explain my plan,” the Keidi went on, his horn swinging rapidly between Martin and Beth, “by traveling to the estates of other leaders to offer personal security, food, and comfort for the remainder of their days, but they deliberately misunderstood me. I cannot make them realize that we all have major obligations to the unborn of the centuries to come, obligations which must be discharged now.
“They are old, fearful, selfish, and stupid,” the First ended harshly. “Why will they not trust me?”
The reason is that they, like you, are Undesirables, Martin thought. He was beginning to feel a degree of sympathy for this aging predator who had apparently changed his spots. Perhaps the status of Undesirable was a temporary condition, after all, and the First was beginning to display the level of responsibility and unselfishness required of a Citizen. He said carefully, “As yet you have not explained your plan in detail, but from what little we’ve heard it shows great wisdom, vision, and unselfishness on your part, and it fully deserves any help that we can provide.”
Martin paused for a moment to let that sink in, then went on smoothly, “You are faced with a problem common to many intelligent species. It is that the majority of the older minds are no longer capable of accepting new ideas, however worthy, much less of conceiving them. Have you appealed to the younger people, with offspring, whose stake in the future is much greater?”
“For an off-worlder you understand me well,” the First said in a voice which suggested that he was not immune to a well-turned compliment. “Many of the second and third generation Keidi see the wisdom of my plan and give it total support. Many others join my Family but tire of the hard work that is necessary. Or they object to working under my direction, or ignore my teachings and try to leave me, their First Father, for what they believe will be an easier life. “They are a great disappointment to me.” So interested had Martin become in what the other was saying that he had almost forgotten the continuing pain in his head. He said, “I can understand that labor with no immediate reward is unpleasant, doubly so if there is disbelief in ultimate purpose of the work. Considering the advantages your Estate offers, particularly to those with young families, I don’t understand why they leave.”
“It shames me to admit it to a stranger, but there is dissatisfaction even among the young people of my own Estate, and strong measures are necessary to check its spread. My population is already dangerously small, and any further reduction would jeopardize the Great Plan, so these malcontents must be prevented from spreading their unsettling ideas or of leaving the Family.”
“Leaving it for where?” Martin asked quickly. If there was another Keidi leader offering his people better conditions, he wanted to know about it. The answer came as a total surprise.