The enlisted men’s elevator slid open and the Marine who was to accompany them stepped out. Cahann glanced at him, j recognized him as only one of the blank-faced enlisted men, and looked over at Strull.
“Spaceman!” called Strull abruptly.
The Marine marched rigidly over to stand in front of Strull and raise both hands high over his head in salute, parroting, “Spaceman Third Class Elan re-porting as ordered, sir.”
Strull returned the salute half-heartedly, barely raising his hands above his shoulders. The Marine’s arms snapped down to his sides. Strull said, “You will accompany us, keeping your eyes open for any danger. You will speak only when spoken to or if necessary to give warning of danger. You will not speak to any native under any circumstances. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir,” snapped the boy. “Very well. You will proceed. Cahann, second.”
Of course, thought Cahann grimly. Inverse order of rank, when the probability of attack is unknown.
The three of them went out and down the ramp, the Marine first in the dull gray of his dress uniform, Cahann second in the paler gray of his civilian garb, and Strull third, wearing his scarlet uniform.
And the man at the foot of the ramp wore a white shirt and tan knee-length trousers and was barefooted. And smiling.
Cahann stopped abruptly when he saw the native, then started moving again, since the Marine was still descending ahead of him, and Strull was coming along in the rear.
The Marine reached the foot of the ramp.
The native stepped aside to allow him to pass. Then he stepped back into Cahann’s path and said, in perfect Terran, “Wondered when you people would make up your minds to land and come out of that silly tin can of yours. The name’s Harvey. Welcome to Cockaigne.”
Cahann could only gape. Perfect Terran? No variations at all in five hundred years?
“Well, well, come along,” said Harvey with brisk cheeriness. “Got to meet the others, you know.”
Strull pushed past Cahann and announced, “I am Adjutant Captain Strull. I greet you on behalf of the Empire of Earth and the Protectorate, and on behalf of Vice-Marshal Helmut Glorring.”
Harvey glanced at Strull, nodded, said, “Greetings yourself,” and turned away in obvious dismissal. Linking his arm through Cahann’s, he said, “It’s just over this way. Come along.”
III
Strull marched along in growing indignation, stung by the native’s snub and impatient for a chance to do something about it.
The ship had landed in the middle of a large squarish meadow, with forest backed up against low broad hills on three sides. The settlement — the largest one on the planet and still tiny by Earth standards — was on the fourth side. It was toward this settlement that they were walking.
The settlement, when they finally came to it, was certainly nothing to crow about, not in Strull’s considered opinion. It was about as primitive as one could get and still survive. There wasn’t even a transparent dome over the settlement. And these people were surely not advanced enough to have complete weather control; which could only mean that they were, from time to time, actually rained upon!
Strull glanced upward apprehensively, wondering if anything of the kind were about to happen now. But the sky was clear blue, with only a few small fluffy clouds. Strull was pessimistically surprised. The way things were going today, he wouldn’t have been a bit surprised if he’d walked directly into a thunderstorm.
Strull looked again at the settlement. Buildings of various sizes and shapes and colors — though none of them more than one story high — were spotted haphazardly here and there, with no order or precision to them at all. Nor was there any sort of pavement or streets, only narrow brown paths worn into the grass, leading hither and yon.
“The meeting hall,” Strull heard the native say to Cahann, “is just over this way. We’re all anxious to get to know you people better.”
When they arrived at the entrance of the meeting hall Strull said coldly, “All right, Cahann, I’ll take over.” He stepped ahead, following the native inside.
There was just the one room within, and the walls were only the one thickness of planed lumber. At this latitude, it would never get cold enough to make more than that really necessary, though there was a rough stone fireplace in one wall.
An amateurish platform, a foot high, was at the far end, with three small stools on it. Other stools were scattered here and there, not in rows or any sort of order at all. And people were sitting on them, dressed somewhat like the first native, though there was no uniform pattern to their clothing except its rustic simplicity.
The native led the way to the platform and turned to Strull to say, “I imagine you want to make some sort of speech now. Want me to introduce you? Or would you rather just begin on your own?”
“I can handle it myself, thank you,” Strull told him, with frosty dignity.
The native shrugged and went back to sit on one of the stools. Cahann was already seated on the second, and the enlisted man was glancing at the third as though he wasn’t quite sure whether he should take it or not. Strull gave him a one-second glower, to let him know he shouldn’t, and then turned to the audience.
“My name,” he boomed, “is Strull, Captain Adjutant to Vice-Marshal Glorring of the TSS (E&D) Lawrence. I greet you of the planet, uh—” What the dickens had that native called this place?
The native in question leaned forward to stage-whisper, “Cockaigne.”
“Cockaigne, yes. Thank you. I greet you, citizens of the planet Cockaigne, on behalf of the Empire of Earth and the Protectorate, and additionally on behalf of Vice-Marshal Glorring, Primate Representative. I congratulate you on your rediscovery by the Empire of Earth and the Protectorate, and I welcome you as a Confederated State in good standing within the Protectorate and beneath the benign and omnipotent protection of the Empire of Earth.”
Strull inhaled, having just barely begun his speech, but he noticed that a bearded native toward the back of the room had risen to his feet and was waving a hand for attention. Strull frowned, paused, and in a lower voice than previously said, “You had a question?”
“That I did,” said the man. While somewhat older and more hairy than the first native, he shared with him an identical expression of lazy insolence. “I was just wondering,” he said, “how you can manage to rediscover us for your Empire when we were never a part of your Empire to begin with.”
Strull allowed a smile of superior knowledge to curve his lips. “Ah,” he said, “but you were in the Empire at one time, over five hundred years ago. I assume all records of a time that far back have been lost, but I can assure you that it is so. Surprising as it may seem to you, humanity is not native to this world. You are descendants of the original colonists sent here by the Old Empire, which collapsed five hundred years ago and which only now has been fully restored.”
“Sorry,” said the native, not looking at all sorry, “but you’ve got your history a little confused. This world wasn’t settled five hundred years ago by the Old Empire, it was settled seven hundred years ago by the United States of America.”
Strull had never heard the term. He blinked rapidly, saying, “What? What, what?”
And that blasted Cahann spoke up, not bothering at all to hide his dislike for Strull. Didn’t he realize that they should show these yokels a united front?
Cahann leaned forward to say, “Regional government on Earth. One of the last. There’ve been some indications in the old manuscripts that it did do some small-scale colonizing of its own, shortly before the Empire took over. We’ve always assumed that their efforts were unsuccessful.”