Chapter III. Hostages on Ala
THEY explored the small room— spherical like the rest—beyond the green rectangle, and found it adequately furnished but without means of egress other than the marked-off section of wall through which they had entered.
Piper said: "The walls turn solid or hot, whichever the Mickey Mice happen to want. And when you step through a wall you always find yourself in the room you happen to want to go to."
"Damned convenient," said Stroud.
Kitty Blake asked: "What are you going to do when you get back, Mr. Stroud?"
Stroud shrugged."Tell the President what I've seen."
"What'll he do?"
"How should I know? But my notion is that we'll be very careful not to antagonize our rodent friends."
"Why" said Butland.
"You saw what sort of armament they have and still you want to know why!"
Butland persisted: "But mightn't all that show they put on be just a show? Something done with a miniature set, like those prehistoric animals they have in movies about that absurd evolution theory?"
"Absurd!" barked Rex Piper. But Stroud silenced him with a gesture.
Stroud said: "That might be so. We have no way of telling. But it's a fair inference that if they can put on such a convincing show, their science is also capable of delivering the real thing if necessary."
Kitty Blake said: "Mr. Butland, don't you see a parallel between the way they've treated us and the way you approach your heathens in Africa or wherever it is?"
"Not at all," replied Butland stiffly."I preach the true gospel, whereas these things worship a false god—"
Stroud slapped his knee."Of course! You've put your finger on it, Miss Blake. Our friend Butland gives the natives bits of cloth and glass to win their confidence; the Alans gave us those gadgets, which to them are no doubt just toys. Everything they've done shows that they regard themselves as vastly superior to us, with good reason."
PIPER grinned at his cousin and said: "How does it feel to be on the receiving end for once, Will?"
Butland dissembled his indignation and asked Stroud: "What's going to happen to the world?"
Stroud smiled a thin, cold smile."What usually happens to aborigines when more civilized people invade their country?"
"We could fight."
"Sure. The aborigines usually do fight. But the result is the same."
"You think we ought to give in right at the start?"
"What I think doesn't matter; it's what the President thinks after he's received my report. But if I were in his place, I can easily imagine deciding that giving in was better than fighting a hopeless fight."
Butland turned to Piper, "You, Rex?"
Piper shrugged."Lost causes never appealed to me much, "
"You, Miss Blake?"
"I don't know yet."
"Well," said Butland, "that's not how / feel about it. You can sit around and watch these heathens put up their idolatrous temples and send our peoples' souls to perdition. But I'll fight them every chance I get."
"I wouldn't," said Stroud."So far they've threatened us with nothing worse than missionarying and a little trade. If you cause trouble, you may give them an excuse for taking us over lock, stock, and barrel." The undersecretary got to his feet as his anger rose."You missionary chaps cause the State Department enough headaches by sticking your noses in where you're not wanted all over the world, and getting yourselves killed. I'll be God-damned if I'll let you interfere in our very delicate relations with the people of this cockeyed world of Ala."
That started an acrimonious argument that lasted until Kitty Blake threatened to subdue the arguers with a chair. She looked capable of doing it. She added: "Maybe it hasn't occurred to you yaps, but the Mickeys are probably listening in on all your talk."
They fell silent. Even the glacial Stroud looked apologetic."Speak of the devil," he muttered as Vlik stuck his head through the wall.
"Friends," said the Alan, "I have here something wherewith you can amuse yourselves." He handed Stroud a box."I apologize for the delay. But you will be returned to earth as soon as the portal is clear."
Stroud opened the box. The other three crowded around."Puzzles!" cried Kitty Blake. The box was in truth full of puzzles: interlocked rings, pieces of bent wire, and other contraptions designed to be taken apart and assembled with a minimum of speed and a maximum of exasperation.
Stroud laughed shortly."They're consistent. Where a southern colored woman will smear her kids' hands with molasses and give them feathers to play with, to keep them occupied, the Alans give us puzzles. Let's see how this one works." Wilmington Stroud interestedly picked up and fiddled with a bunch of metal pieces resembling bent nails.
VLIK said: "Ah, friends, at last I am able to return you to your home universe. I am sorry that you have had such a boring wait. Will you follow me, please? Mr. Stroud first; Mr. Piper next."
They jumped to their feet and lined up. Stroud noted the point at which Vlik's receding tail disappeared into the wall, and marched through. Piper followed him. Kitty Blake next in line, bumped hard into a wall that resolidified as soon as Piper had disappeared through it.
"Damn it to Hell!" said that forthright young woman.
"Please, Miss Blake, your language!" said Will Butland.
Kitty Blake felt the wall to make sure it had no soft spots. Then she turned and planted her right fist in Willard Butland's eye."That," she said, "is only a taste of what you'll get if you make any more remarks about my swearing."
Will Butland reeled back, clapped a hand to his eye, and sat down. He felt utterly miserable; he really tried to do the right thing, and people punched him in the eye for it. It wasn't even a man who. had hit him; any man under 200 pounds Butland could handle. In India he had once beaten an obstreperous Pathan chief into a jelly before he remembered those texts about loving one's enemies, turning the other cheek, etc. In remorse he had then gone around to the hospital where the Pathan was recuperating, and proselytized the unfortunate chief until the Pathan turned Christian in self-defense.
To add to Butland's unhappiness, he could not get out of his head his cousin Rex's remark about this universe's being out of Yahveh's territory. The Bible mentioned Heaven and Hell, but nothing about a series of parallel universes. Was or was not the same deity in charge of all of them? If not, then he was indeed lost and abandoned.
"For heaven's sake," said Kitty Blake, "stop pacing the floor. You give me the williejitters. What's the matter with you?"
Butland told her. She laughed."Will, if I hadn't known you I wouldn't have believed you. Here you're imprisoned in another universe by things out of one of the late Mr. Disney's dreams, and all you worry about is whether you have an immortal soul and if so how to save it. A big strong man like you ought to be ashamed of himself."
"What's your idea, Miss—may I call you Kitty?"
The girl laughed."Why Mister Butland, this is so sudden!"
"Oh, all right, make fun of me. I can take it. What I was going to ask was, why do you think we've been left behind?"
"Now you're talking sense. I'd say that they overheard us, and decided that you and I weren't as sold on their invincibility as the other two."
Butland said: "They look pretty invincible to me; I just didn't want to give up without a fight." He stood up and began feeling around the wall. He said over his shoulder: "They probably have some perfectly simple system of dematerializing the walls..."
VLIK stuck his head in."I regret, friends, that it was not possible to send you back with your colleagues. We will tend to the matter soon. Meanwhile will you come this way to the study chambers?"