Read Online News From Elsewhere by Edmuind Cooper - Free Book Online Page B

mixture of guilt and hate. And though he turned out to be a first-class pilot, he both distrusted his skill and was ashamed of it. He was still unconsciously yearning for the simple life.
    The village to which the hominids led him came as a small shock. It was squalid and it stank. He knew then that he had expected something better.
    The women as well as the men were entirely naked. Their slack bellies, their pendulous breasts sagged wearily as they struggled with pitchers of water from the stream or returned from the morning’s forage with a basket of fruit and a couple of rickety children dancing at their heels. The overwhelming atmosphere was one of lassitude, almost of exhaustion.
    He took in the scene with a feeling that perhaps Alsdorf was right, after all. Perhaps Fomalhaut Three would benefit by the commercially “civilizing” ventures of Trans-Solar Chemicals, even if all the hominids were reduced to the status of coolies. At least Trans-Solar would give them medical aid and clean living conditions,  and rectify any deficiency of vitamins.
    The old hominid who had presented the platinum bowls and then offered his pathetic hospitality was called Masumo. He led Lukas into one of the adobe huts and invited him to squat on the sanded floor. Presently they were served with bowls of vegetable milk and sliced yams by an old crone. Lukas stared at the refreshment distastefully, but decided to risk it. After all, he supposed it was possible even for an apelike creature in a jungle slum to feel insulted.
    Surprisingly, Masumo’s main interest lay in getting Lukas to talk—not the hominid tongue, but his own language. By a complicated amalgam of signs, gestures, and sounds, he indicated his wish for Lukas to talk of his own world, of cities and spaceways. It was some time before the general idea became apparent, and Lukas obliged only with reluctance, feeling that it was going to be like talking to a blank wall.
    But after a while he began to warm up to his subject. He almost forgot Masumo’s presence in the queer sensation that he was talking something out of himself. He described the vast metropolitan culture that had developed on Earth, the slow convergence of East and West, the origin of the Federated World Government after the first and last atomic war, the exploration of the solar planets, and the race for the stars.
    And as he talked, an obscure pattern seemed to be taking shape at the back of his mind.
    It was nearly sunset by the time Lukas got back to the ship. Duluth was waiting for him, but the others were still out with the tractor.
    “Hello, Mike. Been making whoopee with the village maidens? How did it go?”
    Lukas told him.
    The engineer stared at him incredulously. “Boy, one of us has sunstroke, and I’m feeling all right. You say you spent most of the time talking   English ?”
    “That’s what the old boy wanted.” He scratched his head and frowned slightly. “Somehow, it seemed perfectly natural once I got started. You should see that village, Joe. It’s an education. ... Well, what have you been doing with yourself?”
    Duluth grinned. “I played truant. Things were so damn quiet around here, I fixed up the monowheel and went for a run. Covered about a hundred kilometers, I guess.”
    “See anything of Kurt and Tony?”
    “Nope. I went north. Funny thing, Mike, you’d think there’d be a hell of a lot of wild life about, wouldn’t you?”
    “So?”
    “So there just isn’t, that's all. When I’d done about fifteen kilometers, I got fed up with the sand and went for a spin in the forest. Saw a few birds, squirrels, and something that looked like a rabbit. But no big game. What do you make of that?”
    “Nothing. What should I make of it?”
    “I don’t know. It just seems mighty peculiar. Come to think of it, this whole damn setup is mighty peculiar. . . . Too stinking quiet.”
    Lukas suddenly remembered the peculiar feeling he had when Masumo