and opened it and went inside. The people drewback from him. They spat at him, too, and pelted him with food andpebbles. He spoke to them, sternly, in the tone of one speaking tounruly dogs, and he spoke words, in his own tongue. The people began toshuffle about uneasily. They stopped throwing things. He stood waiting.
The yellow-eyed girl came sidling forward and rubbed herself against histhigh, head, shoulder and flank. He reached down and stroked her, andshe whimpered with pleasure and arched her back.
"Oh, for God's sake," said Kieran, "let's get out of here."
* * * * *
Later, they sat wearily on fallen blocks of cement inside a dusty,shadowy room of the old building. Only a hand-lamp dispelled the gloom,and the wind whispered coldly, and Bregg walked to and fro in hiscurious prance as he talked.
"It will be a little while before the necessary medical team can bepicked up and brought here," he said. "We shall have to wait."
"And then?" asked Kieran.
"First to--" Bregg used a word that undoubtedly named a city of theSakae but that meant nothing to Kieran, "--and then to Altair Two. This,of course, is a council matter."
He stopped and looked with bright, shrewd eyes at Kieran. "You are quitethe sensation already, Mr. Kieran. The whole community of starworlds isalready aware of the illegal resuscitation of one of the pioneerspacemen, and of course there is great interest." He paused. "You,yourself, have done nothing unlawful. You cannot very well be sent backto sleep, and undoubtedly the council will want to hear you. I amcurious as to what you will say."
"About Sako?" said Kieran. "About--them?" He made a gesture toward awindow through which the wind brought the sound of stirring, of thegruntings and whufflings of the corralled people.
"Yes. About them."
"I'll tell you how I feel," Kieran said flatly. He saw Paula and Webberlean forward in the shadows. "I'm a human man. The people out there maybe savage, low as the beasts, good for nothing the way they are--butthey're human. You Sakae may be intelligent, civilized, reasonable, butyou're not human. When I see you ordering them around like beasts, Iwant to kill you. That's how I feel."
Bregg did not change his bearing, but he made a small sound that wasalmost a sigh.
"Yes," he said. "I feared it would be so. A man of your times--a manfrom a world where humans were all-dominant--would feel that way." Heturned and looked at Paula and Webber. "It appears that your scheme, tothis extent, was successful."
"No, I wouldn't say that," said Kieran.
Paula stood up. "But you just told us how you feel--"
"And it's the truth," said Kieran. "But there's something else." Helooked thoughtfully at her. "It was a good idea. It was bound to work--aman of my time was bound to feel just this way you wanted him to feel,and would go away from here crying your party slogans and believingthem. But you overlooked something--"
He paused, looking out the window into the sky, at the faintvari-colored radiance of the cluster.
* * * * *
"You overlooked the fact that when you awoke me, I would no longer be aman of my own time--or of any time. I was in darkness for a hundredyears--with the stars my brothers, and no man touching me. Maybe thatchills a man's feelings, maybe something deep in his mind lives and hastime to think. I've told you how I feel, yes. But I haven't told youwhat I think--"
He stopped again, then said, "The people out there in the corral have myform, and my instinctive loyalty is to them. But instinct isn't enough.It would have kept us in the mud of Earth forever, if it could. Reasontook us out to the wider universe. Instinct tells me that those outthere are my people. Reason tells me that you--" he looked at Bregg,"--who are abhorrent to me, who would make my skin creep if I touchedyou, you who go by reason--that you are my real people. Instinct made ahell of Earth for millennia--I say we ought to leave it behind us therein the mud and not let it make a hell of the stars. For you'll run intothis same problem over and over again as you go out into the wideruniverse, and the old parochial human loyalties must be altered, tosolve it."
He looked at Paula and said, "I'm sorry, but if anyone asks me, that iswhat I'll say."
"I'm sorry, too," she said, rage and dejection ringing in her voice."Sorry we woke you. I hope I never see you again."
Kieran shrugged. "After all, you did wake me. You're responsible for me.Here I am, facing a whole new universe, and I'll need you." He went overand patted her shoulder.
"Damn you," she said. But she did not move away from him.
THE END
Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from _Amazing Stories Fact and Science Fiction_ May 1962. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.
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