learn--?"
"The theoretical basis and practical applications of sympathetic magic.Action-at-a-distance by one object upon another. Homeopathic magic: theprinciple that things which resemble one another will interact. Forinstance, there's an animal the natives call a shynph. It has anexcrescence of horn on its brow like an arrowhead, and it arches itsback like a bow when it jumps. Therefore, a shynph is equal to a bow andarrow, and for that reason the Kwanns made their bowstrings out ofshynph-gut. Now they use tensilon because it won't break as easily orget wet and stretch. So they have to turn the tensilon into shynph-gut.They used to do that by drawing a picture of a shynph on the spool, andthen the traders began labeling the spools with pictures of shynph. Ithink my father was one of the first to do that.
"Then, there's contagious magic. Anything that's been part of anythingelse or come in contact with it will interact permanently with it. Iwish I had a sol for every time I've seen a Kwann pull the wad out of ashot-shell, pick up a pinch of dirt from the footprint of some animalhe's tracking, put it in among the buckshot, and then crimp the wad inagain.
"Everything a Kwann does has some sort of magical implications. It'sthe shoonoo's business to know all this; to be able to tell just whatmagical influences have to be produced, and what influences must beavoided. And there are circumstances in which magic simply will notwork, even in theory. The reason is that there is some powerfulcounter-influence at work. He has to know when he can't use magic, andhe has to be able to explain why. And when he's theoretically able to dosomething by magic, he has to have a plausible explanation why it won'tproduce results--just as any highly civilized and ethical Terran M.D.has to be able to explain his failures to the satisfaction of his latepatient's relatives. Only a shoonoo doesn't get sued for malpractice; hegets a spear stuck in him. Under those circumstances, a caste ofhereditary magicians is literally bred for quick thinking. These oldgaffers we have aboard are the intellectual top crust among the natives.Any of them can think rings around your Government school products. Asfor preying on the ignorance and credulity of the other natives, they'reonly infinitesimally less ignorant and credulous themselves. But theywant to learn--from anybody who can gain their respect by respectingthem."
Edith Shaw didn't say anything in reply. She was thoughtful during therest of the meal, and when they were back on the observation deck henoticed that she seemed to be looking at the shoonoon with new eyes.
In the screen-views of Bluelake, Beta had already set, and the sky wasfading; stars had begun to twinkle. There were more fires--one, close tothe city in the east, a regular conflagration--and fighting had brokenout in the native city itself. He was wishing now, that he hadn'tthought it necessary to use those screens. The shoonoon were noticingwhat was going on in them, and talking among themselves. Travis, afterone look at the situation, hurried back to the bridge to make ascreen-call. After a while, he returned, almost crackling withsuppressed excitement.
"Well, it's finally happened! Maith's forced Kovac to declare martialrule!" he said in an exultant undertone.
"Forced him?" Edith was puzzled. "The Army can't force the CivilGovernment--"
"He threatened to do it himself. Intervene and suspend civil rule."
"But I thought only the Navy could do that."
"Any planetary commander of Armed Forces can, in a state of extremeemergency. I think you'll both agree that this emergency is about asextreme as they come. Kovac knew that Maith was unwilling to do it--he'dhave to stand court-martial to justify his action--but he also knew thata governor general who has his Colony taken away from him by the ArmedForces never gets it back; he's finished. So it was just a case of theweaker man in the weaker position yielding."
"Where does this put us?"
"We are a civilian scientific project. You are under orders of GeneralMaith. I am under your orders. I don't know about Edith."
"Can I draft her, or do I have to get you to get General Maith to doit?"
"Listen, don't do that," Edith protested. "I still have to work forGovernment House, and this martial rule won't last forever. They'll allbe prejudiced against me--"
"You can shove your Government job on the air lock," Miles told her."You'll have a better one with Planetwide News, at half again as muchpay. And after the shakeup at Government House, about a year from now,you may be going back as director of EETA. When they find out on Terrajust how badly this Government has been mismanaging things there'll be alot of vacancies."
The shoonoon had been watching the fighting in the viewscreens. Thensomebody noticed that the spot of light on the navigational globe wasapproaching a coastline, and they all rushed forward for a look.
Travis and Edith slept for a while; when they returned to relieve him,Alpha was rising to the east of Bluelake, and the fighting in the citywas still going on. The shoonoon were still wakeful and interested;Kwanns could go without sleep for much longer periods than Terrans. Thelack of any fixed cycle of daylight and darkness on their planet hadleft them unconditioned to any regular sleeping-and-waking rhythm.
"I just called in," Travis said. "Things aren't good, at all. Most ofthe natives in the evacuee cantonments have gotten into the native city,now, and they've gotten hold of a lot of firearms somehow. And they'regetting nasty in the west, beyond where Gonzales is occupying, and inthe northeast, and we only have about half enough troops to cope witheverything. The general wants to know how you're making out with theshoonoon."
"I'll call him before I get in the sack."
He went up on the bridge and made the call. General Maith looked assleepy as he felt; they both yawned as they greeted each other. Therewasn't much he could tell the general, and it sounded like the glibreassurances one gets from a hospital about a friend's condition.
"We'll check in with you as soon as we get back and get our shoonoon putaway. We understand what's motivating these frenzies, now, and in abouttwenty-five to thirty hours we'll be able to start doing something aboutit."
The general, in the screen, grimaced.
"That's a long time, Mr. Gilbert. Longer than we can afford to take, I'mafraid. You're not cruising at full speed now, are you?"
"Oh, no, general. We're just trying to keep Alpha level on the horizon."He thought for a moment. "We don't need to keep down to that. It maymake an even bigger impression if we speed up."
He went back to the observation deck, picked up the PA-phone, and calledfor attention.
"You have seen, now, that we can travel around the world, so fast thatwe keep up with the Sky Fire and it is not seen to set. Now we willtravel even faster, and I will show you a new wonder. I will show youthe Sky Fire rising in the west; it and the Always-Same will seem to gobackward in the sky. This will not be for real; it will only be seen sobecause we will be traveling faster. Watch, now, and see." He called thebridge for full speed, and then told them to look at the Sky-Fire andthen see in the screens where it stood over Bluelake.
That was even better; now they were racing with the Sky-Fire andcatching up to it. After half an hour he left them still excited andwhooping gleefully over the steady gain. Five hours later, when he cameback after a nap and a hasty breakfast, they were still whooping. EdithShaw was excited, too; the shoonoon were trying to estimate how soonthey would be back to Bluelake by comparing the position of the Sky Firewith its position in the screen.
General Maith received them in his private office at Army HQ; FoxxTravis mixed drinks for the four of them while the general checked themicrophones to make sure they had privacy.
"I blame myself for not having forced martial rule on them hundreds ofhours ago," he said. "I have three brigades; the one General Gonzaleshad here originally, and the two I brought with me when I took overhere. We have to keep at least half a brigade in the south, to keep thetribes there from starting any more forest fires. I can't hold Bluelakewith anything less than half a brigade. Gonzales has his hands full inhis area. He had a nasty business while you were off on that worldcruise--natives in one village caught the men stationed there
off guardand wiped them out, and then started another frenzy. It spread to twoother villages before he got it stopped. And we need the Third Brigadein the northeast; there are three quarters of a million natives upthere, inhabiting close to a million square miles. And if anythingreally breaks loose here, and what's been going on in the last few daysis nothing even approaching what a real outbreak could be like, we'llhave to pull in troops from everywhere. We must save the Terran-typecrops and the carniculture plants. If we don't, we all starve."
Miles nodded. There wasn't anything he could think of saying to that.
"How soon can you begin to