Pebble in the Sky (Galactic Empire #3)

Lieutenant Marc Claudy of the Chica garrison yawned slowly and gazed into the middle distance with an ineffable boredom. He was completing his second year of duty on Earth and waited yearningly for replacement.

Nowhere in the Galaxy was the problem of maintaining a garrison quite so complicated as it was on this horrible world. On other planets there existed a certain camaraderie between soldier and civilian, particularly female civilian. There was a sense of freedom and openness.

But here the garrison was a prison. There were the radiation-proof barracks and the filtered atmosphere, free of radioactive dust. There was the lead-impregnated clothing, cold and heavy, which could not be removed without grave risk. As a corollary to that, fraternization with the population (assuming that the desperation of loneliness could drive a soldier to the society of an "Earthie" girl) was out of the question.

What was left, then, but short snorts, long naps, and slow madness?

Lieutenant Claudy shook his head in a futile attempt to clear it, yawned again, sat up and began dragging on his shoes. He looked at his watch and decided it was not yet quite time for evening chow.

And then he jumped to his feet, only one shoe on, acutely conscious of his uncombed hair, and saluted.

The colonel looked about him disparagingly but said nothing directly on the subject. Instead he directed crisply, "Lieutenant, there are reports of rioting in the business district. You will take a decontamination squad to the Dunham department store and take charge. You will see to it that all your men are thoroughly protected against infection by Radiation Fever."

"Radiation Fever!" cried the lieutenant. "Pardon me, sir, but-"

"You will be ready to leave in fifteen minutes," said the colonel coldly.

Arvardan saw the little man first, and stiffened as the other made a little gesture of greeting. "Hi, guv'ner. Hi, big fella. Tell the little lady there ain't no call for the waterworks. "

Pola's head had snapped up, her breath sucked in. Automatically she leaned toward the protecting bulk of Arvardan, who, as automatically, put a protective arm about her. It did not occur to him that that was the second time he had touched an Earthgirl.

He said sharply, "What do you want?"

The little man with the sharp eyes stepped diffidently out from behind a counter piled high with packages. He spoke in a manner which managed to be both ingratiating and impudent simultaneously.

"Here's a weird go outside," he said, "but it don't need to bother you, miss. I'll get your man back to the Institute for you."

"What institute?" demanded Pola fearfully.

"Aw, come off it," said the little man. "I'm Natter, fella with the fruit stand right across the street from the Institute for Nuclear Research. I seen you here lots of times."

"See here," said Arvardan abruptly, "what's all this about?"

Natter's little frame shook with merriment. "They think this fella here has Radiation Fever-"

"Radiation Fever?" It came from both Arvardan and Pola at once.

Natter nodded. "That's right. Two cabbies ate with him and that's what they said. News like that kinda spreads, you know."

"The guards outside," demanded Pola, "are just looking for someone with fever?"

"That's right."

"And just why aren't you afraid of the fever?" demanded Arvardan abruptly. "I take it that it was fear of contagion that caused the authorities to empty the store."

"Sure. The authorities are waiting outside, afraid to come in, too. They're waiting for the Outsiders' decontamination squad to get here."

"And you're not afraid of the fever, is that it?"

"Why should I be? This guy don't have no fever. Look at him. Where's the sores on his mouth? He isn't flushed. His eyes are all right. I know what fever looks like. Come on, miss, we'll march out of here, then."

But Pola was frightened again. "No, no. We can't. He's-he's-" She couldn't go on.

Natter said insinuatingly, "I could take him out. No questions asked. No registration card necessary-"

Pola failed to suppress a little cry, and Arvardan said, with considerable distaste, "What makes you so important?"

Natter laughed hoarsely. He flipped his lapel. "Messenger for the Society of Ancients. Nobody'll ask me questions."

"And what's in it for you?"

"Money! You're anxious and I can help you. There ain't no fairer than that. It's worth, say, a hundred credits to you, and it's worth a hundred credits to me. Fifty credits now, fifty on delivery."

But Pola whispered in horror, "You'll take him to the Ancients."

"What for? He's no good to them, and he's worth a hundred credits to me. If you wait for the Outsiders, they're liable to kill the fella before they find out he's fever-free. You know Outsiders-they don't care if they kill an Earthman or not. They'd rather, in fact."

Arvardan said, "Take the young lady with you."

But Natter's little eyes were very sharp and very sly. "Oh no. Not that guv'ner. I take what you call calculated risks. I can get by with one, maybe not with two. And if I only take one, I take the one what's worth more. Ain't that reasonable to you?"

"What," said Arvardan, "if I pick you up and pull your legs off? What'll happen then?"

Natter flinched, but found his voice, nevertheless, and managed a laugh. "Why, then, you're a dope. They'll get you anyway, and there'll be murder, too, on the list...All right, guv'ner. Keep your hands off."

"Please"-Pola was dragging at Arvardan's arm-"we must take a chance. Let him do as he says...You'll be honest with us, w-won't you, Mr. Natter?"

Natter's lips were curling. "Your big friend wrenched my arm. He had no call to do that, and I don't like nobody to push me around. I'll just take an extra hundred credits for that. Two hundred in all."

"My father'll pay you-"

"One hundred in advance," he replied obdurately.

"But I don't have a hundred credits," Pola wailed.

"That's all right, miss," said Arvardan stonily. "I can swing it."

He opened his wallet and plucked out several bills. He threw them at Natter. "Get going!"

"Go with him, Schwartz," whispered Pola.

Schwartz did, without comment, without caring. He would have gone to hell at that moment with as little emotion.

And they were alone, staring at each other blankly. It was perhaps the first time that Pola had actually looked at Arvardan, and she was amazed to find him tall and craggily handsome, calm and self -confident. She had accepted him till now as an inchoate, unmotivated helper, but now-She grew suddenly shy, and all the events of the last hour or two were enmeshed and lost in a scurry of heartbeating.

They didn't even know each other's name.

She smiled and said, "I'm Pola Shekt."

Arvardan had not seen her smile before, and found himself interested in the phenomenon. It was a glow that entered her face, a radiance. It made him feel-But he put that thought away roughly. An Earthgirl!

So he said, with perhaps less cordiality than he intended, "My name is Bel Arvardan." He held out a bronzed hand, into which her little one was swallowed up for a moment.

She said, "I must thank you for all your help."

Arvardan shrugged it away. "Shall we leave? I mean, now that your friend is gone; safely, I trust."

"I think we would have heard quite a noise if they had caught him, don't you think so?" Her eyes were pleading for confirmation of her hope, and he refused the temptation toward softness.

"Shall we go?"

She was somehow frozen. "Yes, why not?" sharply.

But there was a whining in the air, a shrill moan on the horizon, and the girl's eyes were wide and her outstretched hand suddenly withdrawn again,

"What's the matter now?" asked Arvardan.

"It's the Imperials."

"And are you frightened of them too?" It was the self-consciously non-Earthman Arvardan who spoke-the Sirian archaeologist. Prejudice or not, however the logic might be chopped and minced, the approach of Imperial soldiers meant a trace of sanity and humanity. There was room for condescension here, and he grew kind.

"Don't worry about the Outsiders," he said, even stooping to use their term for non-Earthmen. "I'll handle them, Miss Shekt."

She was suddenly concerned. "Oh no, don't try anything like that. Just don't talk to them at all. Do as they say, and don't even look at them."

Arvardan's smile broadened.

The guards saw them while they were still a distance from the main entrance and fell back. They emerged into a little space of emptiness and a strange hush. The whine of the army cars was almost upon them.

And then there were armored cars in the square and groups of glass-globe-headed soldiers springing out therefrom. The crowds scattered before them in panic, aided in their scramblings by clipped shouts and thrusts with the butt ends of the neuronic whips.

Lieutenant Claudy, in the lead, approached an Earthman guard at the main entrance. " All right, you, who's got the fever?"

His face was slightly distorted within the enclosing glass, with its content of pure air. His voice was slightly metallic as a result of radio amplification.

The guard bent his head in deep respect. "If it please your honor, we have isolated the patient within the store. The two who were with the patient are now standing in the doorway before you."

"They are, are they? Good! Let them stand there. Now in the first place, I want this mob out of here. Sergeant! Clear the square!"

There was a grim efficiency in the proceedings thereafter. The deepening twilight gloomed over Chica as the crowd melted into the darkening air. The streets were beginning to gleam in soft, artificial lighting.

Lieutenant Claudy tapped his heavy boots with the butt of his neuronic whip. "You're sure the sick Earthie is inside?"

"He has not left, your honor. He must be."

"Well, we'll assume he is and waste no time about it. Sergeant! Decontaminate the building!"

A contingent of soldiers, hermetically sealed away from all contact with Terrestrial environment, charged into the building. A slow quarter hour passed, while Arvardan watched all in absorbed fashion. It was a field experiment in intercultural relationships that he was professionally reluctant to disturb.

The last of the soldiers were out again, and the store was shrouded in deepening night.

"Seal the doors!"

Another few minutes and then the cans of disinfectant which had been placed in several spots on each floor were discharged at long distance. In the recesses of the building those cans were flung open and the thick vapors rolled out and curled up the walls, clinging to every square inch of surface, reaching through the air and into the inmost crannies. No protoplasm, from germ to man, could remain alive in its presence, and chemical flushing of the most painstaking type would be required eventually for decontamination.

But now the lieutenant was approaching Arvardan and Pola.

"What was his name?" There was not even cruelty in his voice, merely utter indifference. An Earthman, he thought, had been killed. Well, he had killed a fly that day also. That made two.

He received no answer, Pola bending her head meekly and Arvardan watching curiously. The Imperial officer did not take his eyes off them. He beckoned curtly. "Check them for infection."

An officer bearing the insignia of the Imperial Medical Corps approached them, and was not gentle in his investigation; His gloved hands pushed hard under their armpits and yanked at the corners of their mouths so that he might investigate the inner surfaces of their cheeks.

"No infection, Lieutenant. If they had been exposed this afternoon, the stigmata would be clearly visible by now if infection had occurred."

"Umm." Lieutenant Claudy carefully removed his globe and enjoyed the touch of "live" air, even that of Earth. He tucked the ungainly glass object into the crook of his left elbow and said harshly, "Your name, Earthie-squaw?"

The term itself was richly insulting; the tone in which it was uttered added disgrace to it, but Pola showed no sign of resentment.

"Pola Shekt, sir," she responded in a whisper.

"Your papers!"

She reached into the small pocket of her white jacket and removed the pink folder.

He took it, flared it open in the light of his pocket flash, and studied it. Then he tossed it back. It fell, fluttering, to the floor, and Pola bent quickly for it.

"Stand up," the officer ordered impatiently, and kicked the booklet out of reach. Pola, white-faced, snatched her fingers away.

Arvardan frowned and decided it was time to interfere. He said, "Say, look here, now."

The lieutenant turned on him in a flash, his lips drawn back. "What did you say, Earthie?"

Pola was between them at once. "If you please, sir, this man has nothing to do with anything that has happened today. I never saw him before-"

The lieutenant yanked her aside. "I said, What did you say, Earthie?"

Arvardan returned his stare coolly. "I said, Look here, now. And I was going to say further that I don't like the way you treat women and that I'd advise you to improve your manners."

He was far too irritated to correct the lieutenant's impression of his planetary origin.

Lieutenant Claudy smiled without humor...And where have you been brought up, Earthie? Don't you believe in saying 'sir' when you address a man? You don't know your place, do you? Well, it's been a while since I've had the pleasure of teaching the way of life to a nice big Earthie-buck. Here, how's this-"

And quickly, like the flick of a snake, his open palm was out and across Arvardan's face, back and forth, once, twice. Arvardan stepped back in surprise and then felt the roaring in his ears. His hand shot out to catch the extended arm that pecked at him. He saw the other's face twist in surprise

The muscles in his shoulders writhed easily.

The lieutenant was on the pavement with a crashing thud that sent the glass globe rolling into shattered fragments. He lay still, and Arvardan's half-smile was ferocious. He dusted his hands lightly...Any other bastard here think he can play pattycake on my face?"

But the sergeant had raised his neuronic whip'. The contact closed and there was the dim violet flash that reached out and licked at the tall archaeologist.

Every muscle in Arvardan's body stiffened in unbearable pain, and he sank slowly to his knees. Then, with total paralysis upon him, he blacked out.

When Arvardan swam out of the haze he was conscious first of all of a wash of welcome coolness on his forehead. He tried to open his eyes and found his lids reacting as if swinging on rusty hinges. He let them remain closed and, with infinitely slow jerks (each fragmentary muscular movement shooting pins through him), lifted his arm to his face.

A soft, damp towel, held by a little hand...

He forced an eye open and battled with the mist.

"Pola," he said.

There was a little cry of sudden joy. "Yes. How do you feel?"

"As if I were dead," he croaked, "without the advantage of losing pain...What happened?"

"We were carted off to the military base. The colonel's been in here. They've searched you-and I don't know what they're going to do, but-Oh, Mr. Arvardan, you shouldn't ever have struck the lieutenant. I think you broke his arm. "

A faint smile wrenched at Arvardan's face. "Good! I wish I'd broken his back."

"But resisting an Imperial officer-it's a capital offense." Her voice was a horrified whisper.

"Indeed? We'll see about that."

"Ssh. They're coming back."

Arvardan closed his eyes and relaxed. Pola's cry was faint and far-off in his ears, and when he felt the hypodermic's thrust he could not gather his muscles into motion.

And then there was the wash of wonderful soothing nonpain along his veins and nerves. His arms unknotted and his back released itself slowly from its rigid arch, settling down. He fluttered his eyelids rapidly and, with a thrust of his el. bow, sat up. "

The colonel was regarding him thoughtfully; Pola, apprehensively, yet, somehow, joyfully.

The colonel said, "Well, Dr. Arvardan, we seem to have had an unpleasant contretemps in the city this evening."

Dr. Arvardan. Pola realized the little she knew about him, not even his occupation...She had never felt quite like this.

Arvardan laughed shortly. "Unpleasant, you say. I consider that a rather inadequate adjective."

"You have broken the arm of an officer of the Empire about the performance of his duty."

"That officer struck me first. His duty in no way included the necessity for grossly insulting me, both verbally and physically. In doing so he forfeited any claim he might have to treatment as an officer and gentleman. As a free citizen of the Empire, I had every right to resent such cavalier, not to say illegal, treatment."

The colonel harumphed and seemed at a loss for words. Pola stared at both of them with wide, unbelieving eyes.

Finally the colonel said softly, "Well, I need not say that I consider the whole incident to have been unfortunate. Apparently the pain and indignity involved have been equally spread on both sides. It may be best to forget this matter."

"Forget? I think not. I have been a guest at the Pro. curator's palace, and he may be interested in hearing exactly in what manner his garrison maintains order on Earth."

"Now, Dr. Arvardan, if I assure you that you will receive a public apology-"

"To hell with that. What do you intend doing with Miss Shekt?"

"What would you suggest?"

"That you free her instantly, return her papers, and tender your apologies-right now."

The colonel reddened, then said with an effort, "Of course." He turned to Pola. "If the young lady will accept my deepest regrets..."

They had left the dark garrison walls behind them. It had been a short and silent ten-minute air-taxi ride to the city proper, and now they stood at the deserted blackness of the Institute. It was past midnight.

Pola said, "I don't think I quite understand. You must be very important. It seems silly of me not to know your name. I didn't ever imagine that Outsiders could treat an Earthman so."

Arvardan felt oddly reluctant and yet compelled to end the fiction. "I'm not an Earthman, Pola. I'm an archaeologist from the Sirian Sector."

She turned on him quickly, her face white in the moonlight. For the space of a slow count to ten she said nothing. "Then you outfaced the soldiers because you were safe, after all, and knew it. And I thought-I should have known."

There was an outraged bitterness about her. "I humbly beg your pardon, sir, if at any time today, in my ignorance, I affected any disrespectful familiarity with you-"

"Pola," he cried angrily, "what's the matter? What if I'm not an Earthman? How does that make me different from what I seemed to you to be five minutes ago?"

"You might have told me, sir."

"I'm not asking you to call me 'sir.' Don't be like the rest of them, will you?"

"Like the rest of whom, sir? The rest of the disgusting animals that live on Earth?...I owe you a hundred credits."

"Forget it," said Arvardan disgustedly.

"I cannot follow that order. If you'll give me your address, I will send you a money order for the amount tomorrow."

Arvardan was suddenly brutal. "You owe me much more than a hundred credits."

Pola bit her lip and said in lowered tones, "It is the only part of my great debt, sir, that I can repay. Your address?"

"State House, " he flung at her across his shoulder. He was lost in the night.

And Pola found herself weeping/

Shekt met Pola at the door of his office.

"He's back," he said. "A little thin man brought him."

"Good!" She was having difficulty speaking.

"He asked for two hundred credits. I gave it to him."

"He was to ask for one hundred, but never mind."

She brushed past her father. He said wistfully, "I was terribly worried. The commotions in the neighborhood-I dared not ask; I might have endangered you."

"It's all right. Nothing's happened...Let me sleep here tonight, Father."

But not all her weariness could make her sleep, for something had happened. She had met a man, and he was an Outsider.

But she had his address. She had his address.