The Nitrogen Fix

XVIII Variations, Violent

The moon was up by this time, and there was enough light for human beings and Observers to signal each other, but the latter wasted no time on gestures at first. They flung themselves into each other’s tentacles and embraced for fully a minute, while memories transferred themselves. Even Earrin, who had come to understand the situation pretty well, was embarrassed to watch — though watch he did. The other adults were shocked, though Kahvi recovered quickly when her husband explained. The burning need for population control immediately after the change, coupled with the collapse of all but pseudolife technology, had restored a decidedly Victorian behavior code, with much less hypocrisy than had characterized that age.

The Observers knew all that had happened to each other within two minutes; it took much longer for words to bring to human minds a more or less uniform and up-to-date picture of the situation. The moonwas a good deal higher by then. Action was promptly initiated by Kahvi.

“Now we bring those creatures back to normal air,” she said positively.

“How?” asked Zhamia. “We’ve seeded their plants, but it will take a couple of days before the oxygen producers are really overcome by the N-seed. If there aren’t enough nitrates in the trays, the seeding may not work at all. And we haven’t been into this new place-the lab, they called it; they must have straight oxygen there, too.

Kahvi smiled grimly inside her mask. “There’s wild cartridge tissue around. These folks have either been careless with pseudolife fragments or have been growing things deliberately all over the peninsula.

We’ll get a couple of chunks of that into the buildings, or at least the one where they are now; that’ll bring the oxygen pressure down to standard in half an hour!”

“Do you think the roof will stand it?” asked Earrin. Kahvi thought for a moment.

“Sure,” she said at last. “The wall is only a few centimeters into the air lock pool. The pressure drop will lower the water outside until bubbles can come in, before the roof tissue fails.

“Even with fresh patches?”

“We’ll hope so.” Fyn was startled; he had never seen his wife in such a ruthless mood. He had not seen their child studded with glass caltrops either. “They have masks, anyway,” Kahvi added.

“One of them doesn’t — the boss, I think. Bones pulled it off when she tried to — ”

“Yes, you told us. All right, put it back inside. Don’t leave the lock; just put it by the edge of the water. If they’re asleep we don’t want them to wake up. We can do that later if it’s necessary — but why should it be? The oxygen pressure will only go down to normal. You aren’t thinking.”

“Is normal enough for them?” asked Earrin.

“They make do with it in the city. Stop being so sympathetic, or if you must be, get sympathetic about Danna and me. We still hurt where that scientific glass went in.” Her husband, deciding not to explain that he was still worried about the roof, ceased arguing and went off for a supply of cartridge tissue. Mort and Betty followed; the child had never seen this kind of pseudolife, and her father could not reasonably overlook a chance at her education, tired as they were.

The other children were taken to the raft and nested down by Kahvi. She was back ashore long before the three got back with the needed material.

To anyone familiar with Terrestrial plants when there were any, it would have looked like a section of bamboo almost as long as Earrin was tall, and fully the length of his forearm in diameter. Its bright red color was not obvious by moonlight. It was light enough to carry easily under one arm; and in fact, Betty had carried it with a little trouble from almost the end of the peninsula. It would be over a hundred kilograms heavier when saturated with oxygen, but this could not happen outdoors. There were traces of the gas still free in Earth’s atmosphere, but even white phosphorus would not have been affected by it.

“Good!” exclaimed Kahvi as she saw the mass of tissue. “You only found one? Well, that’ll be enough; they’re all in the jail, and that’ll certainly beat a jailful of oxy — and it isn’t as though we were using it up, either. We can’t get it in dry, but that won’t slow it much. Let’s go; it’s certainly light enough.”

It was actually much too light; Kahvi couldn’t submerge it. An object which displaces around a hundred liters of water and weighs less than two kilograms will easily float a sixty-five kilogram person who is herself only a little more dense than water and loaded with breathing gear. Kahvi needed help.

Eventually, all the adults working together managed to lever one end of the cylinder under the wall, and by united and coordinated pushing worked it through until it popped to the surface on the inside. There was no sound to suggest that it had been noticed.

Then Zhamia took her daughter out to the raft, returning in a few minutes. It had been decided that only the children should occupy the tent until after sunrise, when the oxygen plants would resume activity.

The adults stayed on guard around the air lock of the jail, most of them sleeping on the slimy sand.

Kahvi and Earrin stayed awake, watching the water level of the air lock. This should have been going down as the pressure inside dropped; but nothing of the sort seemed to be happening as the minutes passed. Both knew that time appears to go slowly during periods of anticipation, but finally the comet rose.

“It should have shown something by now!” exclaimed Kahvi. “I wonder what’s gone wrong?”“Maybe the stuff has altered, and isn’t binding oxygen. You can’t really go by looks, you know The woman didn’t even bother to nod agreement; that was the most obvious of the possibilities. Even pseudolife, stable as it was cornpared to real-life, sometimes altered its genetic pattern cancerwise. “I’m going inside,” the woman said suddenly. “Something’s wrong, and they must be too sound asleep to notice.”

“I’ll go.” Earrin seldom actually overruled his wife with any success, except when he was right.

She did not argue this time, but settled thankfully down to rest again. The man waded down the steps and ducked under the wall. It was easy to see inside. The moon was high, and the light panels helped where it failed to reach. The tables which bore the planters prevented direct view of most of the room until Earrin was up the inside stairs, but he could see one man standing, unmasked, near the west wall and watching the Nomad enter. In the moonlight it took a few seconds to recognize Rembert, the first of the oxygen addicts he and Kahvi had met. The presence of this particular waster, however, was far less surprising than the fact that he was entirely alone. No other human being was in the room.

“I’m glad to see you, Nomad Fyn,” the Hiller said calmly. “I’m also glad that you weren’t badly hurt when I pulled your feet from under you the other afternoon. I’m afraid I over-reacted at the idea you were associating with an Invader.”

“Where did —?” Earrin didn’t have to finish the question. Rembert smiled broadly, and nodded toward the southwest corner of the jail. The Nomad followed the indication with his eyes, but at first saw nothing meaningful. The walls were solid, and certainly there could not be an air lock of some unheard-of design an airtight double door, or something of that sort. The craftsmanship involved in such stone work would be incredible, and the wall was of stone; Fyn had climbed it, and knew.

Then he saw the roof. For seconds he could not credit what his eyes were telling him, but they insisted. Clearly visible in the moonlight, a finger’s length from the south and west walls and extending nearly a meter along each from the comer where they met, was a row of square patches, each slightly overlapping the next.

“This tissue grows rapidly, too,” Rembert remarked happily. “I’m sure you’d be glad to have some of the culture.”

You-cut-the-roof-open.” The Nomad could barely get the words out.

“That’s right. I patched it right up again, though, when everyone else had gotten out. They were very kind. They went as fast as they could without making noise, so I wouldn’t lose much oxygen. I must say the level seems low now, though. There was more exchange through the hole than I expected; I must say I don’t see why. There was quite a breeze in through the opening, but that didn’t make sense.”

Earrin, still far too shocked to speak, nodded toward the cylinder of cartridge tissue floating on the water of the lock, still bobbing from his own passage. Rembert looked puzzled, and Fyn at last found enough voice to explain.

“It’s the stuff that goes in breathing cartridges. If the oxygen around it is above a certain concentration it soaks it up; if lower, it gives it off. I’m surprised you never learned about it.”

“I never bothered t o go outside until recently. My friends taught me how to use a mask, but didn’t mention all those details.” Fyn restrained himself from the obvious remark about the friends, and changed the subject.

“Why didn’t you leave with the others?”

“Why, Earrin! I’m surprised at you! Someone had to patch the roof, obviously. I volunteered because of course I expected to have the whole roomful of oxygen to myself after they were gone. I didn’t count on your rather unfair trick with that awful tissue. We’ll have to develop one with a higher equilibrium, for interim use.

“And your friends deserted you here?”

“Oh, they’ll be back, with others. You didn’t really expect to keep us fooled, or in your power, for very long, did you?”

“Why not? The natives are still with us. Even if you bring a lot of help, they can still — ”

“Didn’t your alien friend tell you about the unpleasant things we can do? You really haven’t come to appreciate all the uses of edged and pointed tools, my friend.”Earrin made no answer to this. Bones had by now told him about the spears and glass splinters. He could not blame himself or Kahvi for not foreseeing the escape; the method used was completely unthinkable to any Nomad. Even city dwellers would not normally have wasted air so grossly. These youngsters, however, seemed to have made a major break with everything Earrin regarded as natural and proper. Since these included normal methods of self-preservation, it didn’t seem likely that the group could last long; but they could be dangerous while they did.

If several dozen, or perhaps a hundred, of them came back to the jail with those weapons, they would be in control again at once. Even if the human enemies could improvise foot protection, it was hard to see what could be done for the walking-tentacles of the natives; and while the latter seemed able to survive spears, the human opponents could not. There was nothing which could be fashioned into shields — that concept came more naturally to Fyn than it had to Bones — since the local realwood was available only in narrow strips rather than boards.

Wickerwork did not occur to him, and would have been dismissed as inadequate and too time consuming if it had.

All this musing, he told himself abruptly, was futile. They were all in danger. Kahvi and the others had to be warned, and the children taken out of reach of the menace. Duty or not, if the little ones fell into the hands of these me-first youngsters, Earrin knew he would obey orders.

“Breathe easy,” he said suddenly and automatically to Rembert, and ducked through the air lock.

Kahvi couldn’t believe his report until she had climbed to the roof to examine it for herself. Once convinced, however, she thought rapidly.

“We could get the raft out of their reach easily enough; they can’t be back for hours yet. The trouble is that there isn’t air for all of us in the tent, and won’t be even after the sun comes up. It would take t he plants a day or more to grow enough new leaf surface. It looks as though you others will have to get back to the city quickly with your children.”

“We could take yours, too,” pointed out Zhamia.

“No, thanks.” Kahvi was emphatic, but offered no reasons. “It’s a pity to wake them up; they’ve had a hard night already. I don’t see any — ”

“It would really be a pity, as you say,” Rembert’s voice interrupted. None of them had seen him emerge from the jail; they had been far too concerned with their own problems. “Do you really suppose we were so stupid as to allow you that chance? Only one person went back to help; the others are watching from Hemenway for the ridge. If you try to take your children past them to the city, you will certainly regret it. You may as well let them sleep. As you suggest, nothing more is likely to happen before morning. Please explain all this to your Invader friends, too; they may not have understood me clearly, and it would be a pity if they annoyed us.”

Fyn was already gesturing to the two Boneses, and getting response. Rembert could not understand the responses, of course, but seemed unworried by the fact. He was as sure that his side was in power as Kahvi and Earrin had been about theirs so shortly before. Rembert couldn’t see what the others might do; that was enough for him.

But even Earrin, slow-witted as he was, saw what might be done-background information, not brilliance, made the difference. The first thing was to get the children out of the Hillers’ reach — he included automatically the two who were not his own. He gave little thought about what would happen to himself and adult companions; there was always the city, which had plenty of air in spite of Genda’s ideas. Obviously, one or both of the natives should take the raft out of reach of the Hillers as soon as possible. Earrin gestured this, together with his reasons, to his duplicate friends.

Bones, of course, were reluctant to go. There was much more to be seen right where they were.

However, they had recently embraced, and it was logical that they separate so that more could be observed. Equally logically, the larger unit would be able to move the raft faster; and finally, the same one would be producing a bud in a day or two as a result of the spear wound. It seemed advisable that this occur out of reach of the Hillers. Bones therefore agreed that the larger unit would depart at once with the raft and children and take them as far as Milton, far enough for reasonable safety and near enough for quick return.Earrin approved this decision, but made the mistake of translating it to Zhamia and the others; like most people of his time he was totally unused to direct conflict, couldn’t see what Rembert could do about the matter, and made no effort to keep the oxygen-waster from hearing.

Even Kahvi didn’t spot the error until too late. Rembert, unfortunately, was both a quick thinker and dedicated to his cause.

He could not travel as fast as Bones, but was not far behind the native in reaching the raft. The others followed when they saw where he was going, but failed to guess soon enough what he had in mind — again, it was something unthinkable for most of them, in spite of recent experience.

The junky climbed rather clumsily onto the deck and made his way across the floats to the tent. Then, quite calmly, he drew a glass knife from his harness pouch and held it close to the transparent tissue.

Even his voice was calm.

“I know you or your Invader can pull my hose,” he said. “You can’t do it fast enough, though. Want to take the chance, Nomad, before I slash your tent open? Think your kids would wake up soon enough to get masks on, even if you started yelling right now? Come a step closer, or make a loud noise, and one tentful of air is gone. In fact, since I can’t hold the knife out like this all night, you’d better get off the raft altogether and back ashore — all of you. I can count, even in air this thin. That goes for both your Invaders, too. I know one of them is under water. Go after him, one of you who can talk to him, and get him ashore too. I’ll wait right here until my friends come, and you’ll wait right there by the lab until they do.

“You’d better get your Invader fast; I can see the entry hole inside your tent, and if his head comes up through it I use the knife.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” gritted Kahvi. “Can you guess what we’d do to you?”

“Sure. I knew some people would get killed in this operation. It’s worth it, even if I didn’t really expect to be one of them.”

“You can’t — ”

“Do you really want to take that chance? Get off this raft, right now!”

Bones had submerged to get an anchor, and came up with it at this point. Earrin quickly transmitted an explanation of the new status, though the Observer could evaluate it pretty well without help. It was another fascinating situation, forcing reconsideration of all current hypotheses about individual-mind behavior.

Logically, one should challenge the threat of the individual with the knife in order to determine how closely its sound codes corresponded to actual mental activity; but now that it was necessary to attach so much value to individual lives, that experiment would have to wait. It was a pity; the situation could obviously not be repeated without any lives in danger. It seemed best to obey instructions and go ashore with the rest. That would give time for thought. Rembert watched the company gather on the beach, counted it carefully, and relaxed.

Slowly the moon sank westward, the comet rose toward the meridian, and the eastern sky grew brighter. The people ashore were very tired, but could not sleep. They couldn’t be sure whether the junky was bluffing, but couldn’t face the risk; all of them but Genda had children under threat, and even she did not want to risk them. They could plan all they wished without being overheard by Rembert, for the surf made far too much noise to let him hear voices at that distance. Unfortunately, there seemed no worthwhile plan.

The status held until sunrise. Zhamia was the first to see the group of people approaching over the ridge from the west; they had been expected from the south, of course. The reason was quickly obvious; they had spread out so that none of the group by the laboratory could retreat in any direction except toward the water.

About three quarters of the fifty or sixty newcomers had spears. These were not actually levelled, but by the time the group had reached the beach and surrounded the Nomads and their friends at a distance of only four or five meters, the impression of threat was as great as if they had been. Facial expressions could not be seen, but body attitudes were plain enough. Action supported them almost instantly.

“You Nomads, and the people with you, get away from those Invaders.” The female voice was quiterecognizable; Earrin wished he knew her name. He hesitated, then stepped aside as ordered, followed by the other human beings. He regretted it at once.

“All right, get them!” the same voice ordered. Half a dozen of the weapons instantly flew at the Observers. Their owners must have been concentrating on the more difficult target, for the larger unit went untouched, while four of the weapons lodged in the body of the smaller. It snatched at the shafts with wildly thrashing tentacles, and one by one pulled them out. Colorless blood spurted from the wounds, and the Observer staggered a meter or two toward the water before it fell.

The Hillers watched silently, throwing no more missiles until Bones moved; but as the larger unit snatched up the smaller body and plunged toward the waves, several more points had to be dodged.