He didn’t doubt that it was Deke Wilson’s truck. He looked anyway. A single truck could carry considerable firepower, and a single such mistake could cost a score of lives and put the poor stuttering sentry back on the road without his balls.
It looked like Deke’s truck, more crowded than usual; the truck bed was jammed with standing men. You wouldn’t crowd an attack force together like that. One was a woman. …
Those four: Why did they leap to the eye like that? One was a woman, and one was black, and two were white men. But the four seemed clumped together as if… as if in mutual distaste for the mortals around them. No, they didn’t look like mortals. Tim shifted his elbows on the rock and studied elusively familiar faces through the binoculars…
But the truck was coming too close. Tim sprinted for the hut. He was picking up the microphone when he remembered.
“Yeah?”
“Deke Wilson’s here, three minutes,” said Tim, “and he’s got the astronauts with him, the astronauts from Hammerlab! All four! Chet, you won’t believe them. They look like gods. They look like they never went through the end of the world at all.”
Faces. Dozens of faces, all white, all staring up at them in the truck. They were all talking at once, and Rick Delanty heard only snatches of conversation. “Russians.” “Astronauts, it’s really them.” When he got down from the truck they crowded around, hanging back a bit to avoid crushing the men from space, staring, smiling. Men and women, and they weren’t starving. Their eyes did not have the haunted look that Rick had got used to at Deke Wilson’s place. These people had seen only a part of Hell.
They were mostly middle-aged, and their clothes showed signs of hard work and not much washing. The men tended to be large, the women plain, or was it only that they were dressed for work? At Deke Wilson’s farm the women had dressed like men and worked like men. Here there was a difference. In this valley women were different from men. It wasn’t like the world before Hammerfall. It wasn’t that obvious, and if Rick hadn’t been weeks with Deke Wilson he would have reflected on how things had changed since the Hammer; now, he noticed the similarities. This valley was as different from Wilson’s fortified camp as…
Rick had no more time to reflect on it. There were introductions, and they were ushered up onto the big porch of the stone ranch house. Rick would have known who was in charge even if he hadn’t recognized Senator Jellison: The Senator was not as large as the big, burly men, but everyone made room for him, waited for him to speak first; and his smile made them all feel welcome, even Pieter and Leonilla, who had been dreading this meeting.
More people were coming, some downhill from the fields, others up the drive. The word must have spread fast. Rick looked for Johnny Baker, and saw him, but Baker wasn’t noticing Rick Delanty or anyone else. He was standing in front of a slim girl, tall, red hair, flannel shirt and work trousers. He gripped both her hands, and they devoured each other with their eyes.
“I was sure you were dead,” Baker said. “I just… I never even asked Deke. I was afraid to. I’m glad you lived.”
“I’m glad you lived, too,” she said. Odd, Rick thought: From the sorrow on their faces, you would have thought they were attending each other’s funeral. It was obvious to Rick, and to everyone else: They had been lovers.
And some of the men didn’t like that at all! Trouble building there… Rick again had no time to reflect on. it. The crowd was pressing around, everyone speaking at once. One of the big men turned from watching Johnny and his woman and spoke to Rick. “Are we at war with the Russians?” he demanded.
“No,” Rick said. “What’s left of Russia and what’s left of the United States are allies. Against China. But you can forget about all that, the war’s long over. Between the Hammer and the Soviet missiles, and we think maybe some of our own, there won’t be anything left of China that can fight back.”
“Allies.” The big man was bewildered. “Okay. I guess.”
Rick grinned at him. “The thing is, if we ever get to Russia we’ll find nothing but glaciers. But if we go to China we’ll find Russians, and they’ll remember us as allies. See?”
The man scowled and walked away, exactly as if Rick had been putting him on.
Rick Delanty fell into the old routine. He was used to speaking at gatherings, keeping the words simple and the imagery vivid, explaining without condescending. There were plenty of questions. They wanted to know what it was like in space. How long did it take to get used to free fall? Rick was surprised at how many had watched their TV broadcasts from Hammerlab and remembered Rick’s impromptu zero-G ballet performance. How did they move? Eat? Drink? Patch a meteor strike? Couldn’t that raw sunlight burn your eyes out? Did they wear dark glasses all the time?
He learned the names. The young girl was Alice Cox, the woman with the tray of hot coffee — real coffee! — was her mother, the burly men with the challenging stance were both Christophers, and so was the one who’d wanted to know about the war, only that one had gone inside with Deke Wilson and Johnny Baker, leaving Mrs. Cox to be hostess. There was a man introduced as “Mayor” and another whom everyone called “Chief,” but there was something subtle Rick didn’t understand, because the Christophers, with no title, seemed to have higher status. All the men seemed big, and they were all armed. Was he already so used to the half-starved look of Deke Wilson’s band?
“The Senator says we can spare some light,” Mrs. Cox announced after one of her trips inside. “You can talk to the astronauts after it’s too dark to work. And maybe we’ll have a party Sunday.”
There were murmurs of agreement, and goodbyes, and the crowd melted away. Mrs. Cox took them inside, and brought more coffee into the living room. The perfect hostess, and Rick found himself relaxing for the first time since they had landed. At Deke Wilson’s there had been coffee, but not much, and it was consumed hurriedly by men about to go on guard duty. No one sat relaxed in a parlor, and the coffee certainly wasn’t served in china cups.
“I’m sorry there’s nobody around to keep you company,” Mrs. Cox said. “Everyone’s got work to do. They’ll be back tonight, and then they’ll talk your head off.”
“It is not important,” Pieter said. “We thank you for the welcome.” He and Leonilla sat together, apart from Rick. “I hope we are not keeping you from your duties.”
“Well, I’ve got dinner to cook,” Mrs. Cox said. “If you want anything, just call me.” She left them alone, pointedly setting down the coffeepot. “Better drink that before it gets cold,” she said. “I can’t promise there’ll be any more for awhile.”
“Thank you,” Leonilla said. “You are all so kind to us…”
“No more than you deserve, I’m sure,” Mrs. Cox answered, and then she was gone.
“So. We have found a government,” Pieter said. “Where is General Baker?”
Rick shrugged. “Back there somewhere with Deke and the Senator and some of the others. Big conference.”
“To which we were not invited,” Jakov said. “I understand why Leonilla and I are not needed, but why are you out here?”
“I thought about that,” Rick said. “But they all left pretty quick. You know what Deke’s got to tell them. And somebody had to stay out there and talk to the crowd. I took it as a compliment.”