New Writings in SF 20 - [Anthology] Read online

  Skunder explained.

  ‘So there’s nothing we can do,’ observed Erkelens heavily when the Cantek had finished.

  ‘I’m not so sure of that,’ said Rosskidd, with a meaning glance at Skunder. In the open air, the tall man had gained confidence again; the fear was gone from his eyes to be replaced by a shrewd look.

  ‘Have you got any ideas, Rosskidd?’

  ‘No, but I think Skunder might have.’

  ‘Skunder?’ The captain regarded the Cantek. ‘I thought you said it was a question of time?’

  ‘That’s right.’ Skunder wondered what was coming next, but Rosskidd did not enlarge upon his remark.

  * * * *

  Later in the large dome, while Skunder slept outside, Rosskidd made his views plain.

  ‘I don’t trust that Cantek,’ he informed Erkelens.

  ‘Skunder? He’s OK. He’s done the last three trips with me. A good man.’

  ‘Man?’ Rosskidd laughed shortly. ‘How you can call a four-foot humanoid midget a man, I don’t know, Erkelens. You’ve been here too long. You’ve gone native/

  ‘What exactly have you got against the Canteks, Rosskidd?’

  ‘Look.’ The big man leaned forward, his expression ominous. ‘You hired me to do a job and I’m doing it. So far I’ve done it well, I reckon, which is what I’m paid for. I give value for money. But I’m not paid to like the Canteks. Do you know what that superior little bastard did in the shaft ? He started giving me a lecture about the worms, for Christ’s sake. Told me he was a marine biologist.’

  ‘He is.’

  ‘By Cantek standards maybe, but he wouldn’t get far on Earth. Who the hell do these people think they are? They’re way behind the times. They still use internal combustion engines and they’ve polluted their atmosphere and sea. They’re centuries behind Earth. And then that weird dwarf starts pulling the superior knowledge stunt on me.’

  Erkelens regarded his mate carefully. ‘Are you scared of the ice, Rosskidd?’ he asked shrewdly. ‘Because if you are, you shouldn’t be on this job. There’s something about the ice; it gets you after a while. A man can get scared, permanently. I had trouble once, so I saw a doctor about it. He said this feeling comes on because we’re in an environment of non-life. There’s nothing here, you see, except the ice, and the sea, and the sky; in these latitudes there are no birds, and no fish that I’ve ever seen. At least on a ship you’d have a large crew, a cat or two and rats, no doubt. But here, on the ice ... Have you ever had the feeling, Rosskidd—when you’re at the other end of the berg, or down in the tunnels by yourself, have you ever had the feeling that you’re the only living being in the whole Galaxy? Almost the only living being, that is; but not quite. Because down there below you is the worm. It’s just you and her, nothing else, Rosskidd; just you and the worm, alone in infinity and eternity; and you know you’re no match for the worm. Have you ever felt like that, Rosskidd?’

  ‘Damn you, Erkelens,’ muttered the other man ...

  ‘I just wanted to point out that all of us have our problems here. I’ve got mine, and Skunder’s got his. But because we’re scared, we don’t start hitting out at each other. You’re new to the bergs, Rosskidd, so we make allowances for you. But you’ve got to make allowances for us, too. We’re stuck here for a long time, the three of us, and we’ve got to get along together. Now. Before we started all this, you were telling me you didn’t trust Skunder. Perhaps you’ll tell me why.’

  Rosskidd hesitated. ‘He seemed to give up easily,’ he said at last. ‘When the berg stopped he knew what the trouble was, but he didn’t seem to want to do anything about it.’

  ‘He’s the expert, you know,’ Erkelens pointed out gently. ‘This sort of thing has happened before. There’s very little that can be done.’

  ‘I daresay, but I thought... I thought at the time, that maybe he was in league with Lejour. That he was delaying us deliberately.’

  Erkelens looked thoughtful. ‘I don’t think so. He told us Lejour was around, remember? He needn’t have done that. We didn’t hear the helicopter.’

  Rosskidd mumbled something, unconvinced, and the two Earthmen began to prepare for bed. Erkelens was soon asleep, his breathing deep and regular, but Rosskidd tossed on the nightmare fringe of waking dreams for a long time. He kept seeing the ice beneath him as he lay on his stomach; it was as though the bed was not there; the ice was green and slowly changed to blue, bright phosphorescent blue, as the bergworm drove its way upwards, vertically, questing hungrily for Rosskidd who was the only other living being in the Galaxy ...

  * * * *

  Erkelens was crouched over the screen. ‘I think she’s turned,’ he said. ‘The trace has lengthened. Skunder, what do you think?’

  The Cantek paced about the ice for a moment, expressionlessly. Rosskidd sniffed. ‘What’s he supposed to be, telepathic?’

  ‘Sort of,’ said Erkelens. ‘The Canteks have an affinity to animal life. You’ve noticed it already, haven’t you? Skunder found us this worm; all we did was to plot the exact position.’

  The Cantek stopped pacing. ‘We shall be moving again within the hour,’ he informed them positively. ‘I can start drilling the control shaft again.’ He left them.

  In fact the motion of the berg changed in fifty minutes; the spinning ceased and, to Erkelen’s relief, they commenced moving in the right direction, heading west, hugging the coastline. It would be some time before Skunder’s control arrangements were complete; meanwhile, they were not losing any time.

  Shortly before suppertime Rosskidd hurried to the dome to find Erkelens crouched outside preparing the meal. ‘There’s a free berg ahead of us,’ he gasped. He was breathless, puffs of mist pulsed from his open mouth. ‘Could be Lejour. He hasn’t got much of a start, after all.’

  ‘And Skunder said we had a good worm.’

  ‘He didn’t say how good Lejour’s worm was.’

  ‘We’ll soon know. How far ahead is he?’

  ‘About a mile.’

  Skunder was approaching them, a tiny, child-like figure on the white expanse. He glanced at the steaming pot, then at Erkelens. ‘Control shaft complete, Captain. Everything in order.’ He grinned nervously.

  ‘Rosskidd’s sighted Lejour. About a mile ahead of us. What are our chances?’

  The Cantek started; he shielded his eyes and gazed across the sea, his expression unfathomable, while Rosskidd watched him closely. ‘I said we had a good worm,’ Skunder reminded them. ‘Lejour will have Alvo with him as pilot; he used him on the last trip. Lejour will see us, and make Alvo hurry the worm. Alvo is not a strong man ... I think, within the next week, Lejour’s worm will be spent, or it will revolt and quit the berg. I feel sorry for Alvo. We will reach Alkar before them.’

  Rosskidd stared at Skunder. ‘What you’re saying is, we shouldn’t worry if Lejour draws ahead of us?’

  ‘That is so.’

  Erkelens broke in hurriedly. ‘Look, Skunder. I don’t want to teach you your own business, so let me put it like this—I wouldn’t like to lose sight of Lejour, if you get my meaning. Let him draw ahead if you must, but not too far. I want to keep my eye on him.’

  ‘Tactfully put, Skipper,’ remarked Rosskidd.

  Skunder looked from one Earthman to the other, then turned and made for his tiny sleeping quarters, unzipped the entrance and crawled inside.

  ‘Looks like he’s not eating,’ Rosskidd observed. ‘You’ve upset him Erkelens.’

  The captain stared at his mate furiously. ‘When you’ve made a few more trips, Rosskidd, you might begin to understand. Meanwhile, just remember that there are three human beings on this berg, and another three on that berg ahead of us. And they are our enemies, and the sea is our enemy, and the sky and the bergworm are our enemies, and even our own minds. We’re heavily outnumbered, Rosskidd, we three here. We don’t want to increase the odds further.’

  Moodily, Rosskidd spooned a mouthful of stew, gazing at the silent minidome a few yards away.
>
  * * * *

  For the next week the berg ploughed through the grey ocean northwards, leaving the glittering ice-cap far behind, always keeping in sight the crystal flicker on the horizon which denoted the position of Lejour. The sea developed a sheen as they progressed; the fringes of pollution. One morning as Rosskidd and Erkelens were finishing breakfast they were alerted by a distant high pitched whine.

  Erkelens looked up in surprise. ‘Sound like Lejour’s helicopter,’ he remarked. ‘Heading this way.’

  ‘What do you suppose he wants?’

  Erkelens grinned. ‘Well, there’s always the chance that he’s broken a leg, and his mate’s coming to beg assistance. We’re a long way from land, and his helicopter has no great range. I’m looking forward to this.’ He watched as the helicopter appeared, a winging beetle in the misty sky; hovered, and descended towards them to land in a fog of fine snow.

  A figure emerged and strolled towards them unhurriedly. They remained seated. Lejour stood above them, a small man about the height of Erkelens. He greeted them. Erkelens looked up, as though surprised to see him. ‘Hello, Lejour,’ he said casually.

  ‘I thought it must be you. When I saw you trailing behind me, I said to myself, that’s Erkelens, bound for Alkar, and too late as usual.’ Lejour’s tone was light and bantering; he glanced at Rosskidd.

  ‘Rosskidd, meet Lejour.’ Erkelens introduced the two men who eyed each other warily. There was a lengthy silence; Erkelens and Rosskidd resumed their breakfast. ‘What’s your problem, Lejour?’ asked the captain at last, through a full mouth.

  ‘You’re the one with problems. Lagging behind a bit, aren’t you ? You won’t get much of a price at Alkar, once I’ve flooded the market.’

  ‘Always assuming you get there first. Which is an assumption I’m not making.’

  Lejour squatted on his haunches, bringing himself down to their level. ‘Now, look here, Erkelens,’ he began in reasonable tones. ‘I don’t see any point in our competing over this trip. We’re cutting each other’s throats. I’ve got a suggestion to make.’

  ‘I thought you might have.’

  Ignoring the sarcasm, Lejour continued: ‘We can make a killing over this thing. We both know the fresh water shortage at Alkar. So why not join forces; say, tell them that they have to accept both bergs at a fixed price, a little below the going rate, of course; they’re not fools. But that way we’ll both gain, instead of one of us taking the chance of getting next to nothing.’

  ‘You’re the one who’s taking that chance, Lejour. I’m confident of my price.’

  Lejour stood abruptly. ‘You’re a damned fool, Erkelens. Racing like this, we could finish up with our worms quitting the bergs, and neither of us will make it.’

  ‘I’ll make it,’ said Erkelens confidently.

  Lejour glared at him, then spun round and started back for the helicopter. As he passed the minidome, Skunder emerged. The two men stood motionless for a moment, a frozen tableau on the ice as Lejour halted in mid-stride. They said nothing that Erkelens or Rosskidd could hear; they gazed at each other for an instant before Lejour resumed his walk to the helicopter. A moment later the machine roared into the sky and Skunder joined them, sitting on his heels and eating silently while the other two regarded him uncertainly.

  ‘What do you make of that?’ asked Rosskidd, when Skunder had finished and departed,

  “Lejour’s overtaxed his worm. He knows we can beat him to Alkar.’

  ‘I mean him and Skunder.’

  Erkelens sighed. ‘I wish you could forget this notion of yours. Skunder and Lejour worked together once. Lejour was surprised to see him here, maybe. I don’t know. I don’t see that it matters.’

  Rosskidd muttered something and walked away.

  Later Erkelens met Skunder at the north end of the berg. The little Cantek was gazing out to sea. ‘Lejour’s slowing down,’ he said. ‘We’re closing on him.’

  ‘What exactly is between you and Lejour?’ asked Erkelens.

  Skunder scuffed his leather-bound feet in the snow and was silent. He looked at the Earthman, then at the sea again. He sniffed. ‘Smell that, Captain?’ he asked.

  Obediently Erkelens inhaled. A faint, thick smell came to him, cloying. What is it?’ he asked. The sea flowed past them, rainbow coloured. ‘Pollution?’

  Skunder sighed. ‘Another mistake by my people,’ he said. ‘You ought to keep up to date with what goes on, Captain. Cantek is not just a mindless planet which earns money for you to send home for a future memory of retirement. Cantek is a world where humanoids live and love and kill, and my people are just as greedy as yours, but younger. And in their greed they make mistakes, just like Earth did, years ago. Earth could prevent us making those mistakes if it wanted, but Earth will not help.’

  ‘You’re feeling bitter today, Skunder. Was it seeing Lejour?’

  ‘Possibly. It doesn’t alter the facts. Your people have come to our planet to make money out of us. If you helped us progress to your level, there would not be so much money to be made. We would not, for example, have the freshwater problem, and the polluted seas and atmosphere. You have beaten the pollution problem on Earth, right?’

  ‘We have. It took a long time and there was a lot of opposition, but we did it.’

  ‘And I expect before you achieved that, your ocean looked like this, sometimes.’

  Erkelens examined the water. Even from the height of the berg, he could discern the oiliness of the surface, the rainbow reflections. ‘It’s spread this far south,’ he murmured. ‘In a decade it’ll reach the ice-cap. And then what? How can you get any rainfall, if the sea is unable to evaporate?’

  ‘It’s not quite that bad yet, Captain. This is from the new submarine oilfield. You remember, I mentioned it last trip ? There was a big project, about five hundred miles from Alkar. Men were down there, living underwater in a big pressure dome, drilling, piping the crude oil to the coast.’

  ‘I remember.’ Erkelens gazed at the oil slick in horrified fascination.

  ‘The disaster occurred last month. Nobody knows quite what caused it; maybe the dome fractured, maybe there was an explosion or an earthquake. All we know is that contact with the site was lost suddenly. Site!’ Skunder laughed, shortly and bitterly. ‘It was more like a miniature city. The oilfield was going to supply the whole of Cantek for the next two hundred years, so they said. But contact was lost, as they put it, and suddenly the surface of the sea in this area was covered with a layer of oil inches, even feet thick. It’s high-grade stuff. I wouldn’t even light a cigarette until we’re through, if I were you ...

  ‘But I can’t get over the needlessness of it,’ the Cantek continued. ‘Earth doesn’t use oil as a fuel any more. Why should we?’

  ‘I guess the World Government thinks the lesser-developed planets should make their own way forward,’ said Erkelens defensively. ‘We’ve had some bad examples, even on Earth itself in the old days, of what happens when you artificially accelerate the progress of a race.’

  ‘So we don’t get our reactors and we don’t get our uranium.’

  ‘Skunder,’ said Erkelens patiently, ‘Cantek still has a major war every twenty years. Let things settle down. Give yourself a chance. Handing out reactors to all your various governments would be like giving lasers to chimpanzees.’ He coughed uncomfortably as the insulting aspect of the simile struck him.

  Skunder didn’t reply, but gazed at the slowly heaving surface, brooding.

  * * * *

  ‘We’re closing on him,’ observed Rosskidd with satisfaction. ‘We’re closing fast.’

  ‘His worm is tired,’ Skunder surmised. ‘He has driven it too hard.’

  It was two days later. The atmosphere was heavy with the clinging stench of oil, whipped past their faces by the driving northerly wind which had, over the past few hours, slowed the bergs almost to a standstill. Half a mile away was Lejour’s berg; from time to time they could see the crew moving about, black ants on the translu
cent silver.

  ‘Do you think his worm will leave him?’ asked Erkelens hopefully.

  ‘Not under this oil. The water will be dark, down there. The worms are scared. They will cling to familiar surroundings. You notice our own motion?’

  The berg was rocking, an irregular movement which could not be attributed to the action of the sea. The giant worm was questing this way and that; they could imagine the cavernous mouth gaping as the head swung from side to side, seeking an end to the unnaturally black water. Nevertheless they continued to inch forward in a generally northerly direction. Skunder had advised against exercising too much control at this time; it was better to let the worm have her head until the oil was behind them.

  ‘What’s going on there?’ asked Erkelens suddenly. The three tiny figures of Lejour’s crew were grouped at the near end of their berg engaged in some sort of activity. A cascade of minute black dots fell slowly past the scintillating face of the berg. They saw no splash as the object hit the sullen water. Erkelens and Rosskidd regarded each other in some alarm. ‘The bastard’s up to something,’ the captain said.