Genley did, without flinching. Jin buffeted his arm and laughed when he had done it.
“You are my father,” Jin said.
Mannin would have taken notes on that. Asked questions: was it a common thing to say? Genley went on staring him in the eye, too solid for Jin to shake, in any sense.
“My father,” Jin said, still holding his arm. “Who asks me questions, questions, questions what I do. I learn from your questions, Gen‑ley. So I call you my father. Why doesn’t my father ask me gifts?”
“What should I ask for?”
“A man should have women. You want the women, Gen‑ley, you go down…anytime you like. Not hunter women: trouble, hunter women. But all the others. Anytime you like. You like that?”
200 CR, day 120
Field report: R. Genley
…The lord Jin has made considerable progress toward further stabilizing the government. The reports of dissent in the TransStyx have died down following a personal visit of one of his aides to that side and indications are that the chief of the opposition is now supporting his authority.
Memo, E. McGee to Base Director
Copy to R. Genley in field
The lordJin?…
xxvi
200 CR, day 203
Field report: R. Genley
…In all, Jin 12’s new programs are succeeding. Agriculture is up another 5 percent this year, for a total of 112% increase since his accession. Roadbuilding, a totally new development, has made possible the delivery of limestone to the hitherside tower, another of Jin’s ideas, gathered from observation, I surmise, of our own constructions inside the wire. The mission has continually observed the zero trade restriction and most carefully has withheld information, but it could be the mere presence of the Base is a goad to the energetic Styxside culture, accelerating their dissatisfaction with conditions as they are. Looking as they do through the wire at a permanent city, observing woven clothing and a wealth of metal, they are discontent with what they have. The lord Jin is particularly anxious for metal, but sees no present possibility of obtaining it. The choice which placed the colony in a fertile deep plain has ironically made that particular advancement difficult until explorations reach the mountainous southeast. The road to the quarries is part of a push in this direction, making possible, if not wheeled transport, the rapid transit of mounted traffic.
There has been another development, in the surprising invitation of the lord Jin for me to visit the farside settlements, an opportunity providing some hazards, but altogether attractive in terms of opening even wider contacts with this unprecedented culture. I have told the lord Jin that this will require some consultation and I hope for the Director’s consent…
200 CR, day 203
Message, Dr. E. McGee to R. Genley
…it seems to me that this extension of a quarry road and this interest you name as evidence of a progressive attitude could equally well be interpreted as a certain aggressiveness toward the south. The mountains lord Jin wants, as you put it, lie within the natural sphere of the Cloud‑siders.
200 CR, day 203
Message, Dr. R. Genley to E. McGee
I do not view that our duties include carving out “spheres of influence” or manifest destinies of our private protectorates. I do not urge the Styx settlements to any ambition and I trust that you maintain the same policy with the Cloud, in what contacts you have managed to secure with them.
200 CR, day 203
Message, Dr. E. McGee to R. Genley
Copy to Base Director
You have been taken in by a deceptive scoundrel and may be taken further if you accept this invitation to enter the transStygian settlements. I consider the potential hazard to peace to be unwarrantably great should advanced technology fall into the hands of this young warlord and I intend to object to your proposed operations across the Styx for that reason and for no private animosity.
200 CR, day 206
Memo, Base Director to E. McGee
The Board has taken your warning under consideration, but feels that the potential advantages outweigh the risk.
Message, Base Director to R. Genley
Arrangements for transStyx operation may be pursued with appropriate safeguards…
xxvii
201 CR, day 2
Field report, Dr. R. Genley
Green Tower: the transStyx district
…Lord Jin has been persuaded that Drs. Mannin and Kim might join me in the transStyx.
I have been afforded the signal honor of being given a high tower room for my comfort–a small one, to be sure, but decidedly dryer in the recent rains. Further, this has afforded me the chance to see the interactions of the upper tower folk at close hand.
Which brings me to a repeated request for the chance to bring vid recorders into the TransStyx. We are losing irreplaceable material. We do not believe that such highly complicated technology would pose any significant problem, since the people are well‑accustomed to our handling strange things, and there has never been any incidence of theft or attempt at theft: the lord Jin has us under his protection. Mannin and Kim might bring this equipment when they come.
xxviii
203 CR, day 45
Field report, Dr. E. McGee
The heir, Elai, was delivered of a fourth son. So the report runs among the outer towers. Ellai‑Eldest’s health is failing. I have heard that the heir is in fragile health following this birth and there is some alarm on this account. I am not sanguine about the future of the Cloud settlements should Elai die after succeeding Ellai, as now seems imminent. It is not out of all possibility that this community too could see a prolonged regency for Elai’s minor sons. Or the power might pass laterally to one Paeia, a cousin of some degree, who is of middle years, and ambitious. I urgently hope the Board will consider whether any protective measures could be taken, considering that we have, albeit indirectly, sustained the prestige and the power of the Stygian leader by accepting his contact. Whether this was correctly done or whether the continued and increasing presence of Base personnel in the TransStyx does not in fact create an indirect threat to the safety of the Cloud, I do not at this time argue.
I urgently advocate the establishment of a permanent base for study in the vicinity of the Cloud to balance any real or imagined support we may have given their enemies. In my judgement, the Cloud expects attack. By what reasoning they have arrived at this conclusion, I have no information. I even suspect information carried through the calibans.
203 CR, day 47
Message, R. Genley to the Base Director
…That Dr. McGee now descends to obscure arguments involving conspiracy among calibans does not deserve serious answer. I would support her request for assistance: her post has involved too much solitude, and perhaps some personal risk, recalling her injuries of some years past.