Stevenson snorted as he came to a halt. "Michael, if you think for an instant that if I thought that guard was serious, I would have… well, you'd be as ready for a soft-walled room as the rest of us are." Stevenson cocked his head back toward the collection of rough lean-tos that housed the former RMI Department of History on Bendadn. "Look at us, Michael. Flabby, gray, weak, and without half an idea between us as to how to survive on our own, much less as savages."
Michael looked at the camp, saw several faces turned in his direction. As they noticed him looking back, the faces turned away. Michael looked at Stevenson. "Have you been put up as a spokesman of some kind?"
"I guess I have. Look, you know as well as any of us how impossible our situation is. You know what the winter is like on Bendadn. I doubt if any of us can survive it like this."
Michael shrugged. "What would you have me do about it?"
Stevenson shook his head. "I don't know. Get in touch with Lynn. Ask for a deal."
"What kind of deal? We don't have anything he wants."
Stevenson looked into Michael's eyes for an instant, then averted his glance. "We have one thing."
Michael studied Stevenson, then as his mouth opened in surprise he pointed at the camp. "You… and the others. You want me to tell Lynn that we'll go back and implement his damnable Manifest Destiny plan?"
Stevenson kept his gaze down as he nodded. "What good are we doing like this? I ask you, what good? If Kurst over there hadn't had a smattering of medical training, I'd be dead right now. The same thing for those two Benda males who got wounded with me. Michael, in a couple of months we aren't going to have anything to eat!"
Michael sighed. "Is this the man who came to me with the Hyman Report? The same man who said that I have to do something?"
Stevenson shook his head. "I know. But, we aren't doing any good like this. What about the families that got tossed into the bush along with us? You and I are single, but what about the instructors with families? Could you sit and watch your son or daughter starve or freeze to death? What good are our ideals then?"
"Dale, that's when they're the most important. I'll tell you what good we've done. After you and the two Benda males were wounded, the rest of the students carried the three of you off and cared for you until we could get Kurst to you. Before we came, they wouldn't have done that—not for a human, not for a Benda."
Stevenson looked into Michael's eyes and shook his head. "But what good are we doing now?"
"We are abstaining from the commission of a crime."
"Aaah—"
"Listen, Dale. When you came to me with that report, what did you have as a limit on your so-called ideals? Do what you can, Fellman, just as long as I don't lose my job?" Michael turned away, then spoke with his back toward Stevenson. "First, Dale, I doubt if the Manifest Destiny program can be salvaged at this point. Our students, I am proud to say, have learned too well for that. But even if we could reverse what we've done, I doubt that Jacob Lynn would believe it, or, if he did, that he would take any of us back. In his mind, he is committed to the use of physical force." Michael turned back. "But if any of those in the camp want to try, I have no way of stopping them."
That evening, Armath and a scattering of Benda males looked with horror at the bodies littered across the Javuud Valley. Squads of scaled creatures moved out from the protection of the mineral extraction plant. Each one carried one of the weapons that had felled the Benda long before any of them had reached the RMI ramparts. A hairy hand shook Armath's shoulder. "The creatures seek the rest of us, Armath. We must run!"
The speaker ran off into the underbrush leaving Armath alone. The Benda male frowned as he felt the hair below his eyes and found them wet. He lowered his hand as a fist, watched the beings coming closer, then he turned and followed the other male into the forest.
Michael, Stevenson and several of the other instructors watched as the huge Benda male drew a seven-pointed star in the dirt. Armath looked up at the circle of human faces, then pointed at the star. "This is the sign they wore on their coverings, and on their flying boats."
"That's the Ninth Quadrant insignia." One of the humans stepped forward and turned toward Michael. "Those aren't RMI guards, Fellman. Those are Ninth Quadrant troops."
Michael nodded at the man. "I can see that, DuPree. What I want to know is how RMI got the Quadrant to use its troops." He looked up at DuPree. "You have experience in Quadrant law, don't you?"
DuPree nodded. "The only way I can figure it is that RMI asked for the protection of the Quadrant under, the Savage Planet Regulations. What it amounts to, if a planet is savage, according to the law's definition of savage, then a private party on such a planet can request the Quadrant to come in as a police force if a threat has presented itself."
Michael nodded, then looked up at Armath. "Why did you do this? You cannot attack guns with bare hands."
"This is the only way we know, Fellman."
Michael nodded. "I know. I know. How many of you were lost?"
"A hundred of us charged the complex. Not more than ten escaped alive."
Michael nodded. "That a hundred of you would fight together for a common goal; this is good." He studied the star, then looked up at DuPree. "Savage?"
DuPree shrugged. "That's what they're called."
Michael turned toward Armath. "Do not be sad, Armath. Your companions joined in the right cause, but with the wrong weapons." Michael stood and turned toward the other humans. "School resumes tomorrow." He turned back to Armath. "I cannot travel the circuit as I did before. Can you spread word to the Benda?"
Armath frowned, then nodded. "I shall have them told."
As Bendadn's chilly winds gathered, sending the white flakes of winter through trees and across fields, little gray men and little gray women stood ankle deep in snow, surrounded by hulking black bodies. At night, the humans were quartered in Benda camps. They earned their keep during the days with their talk. The Benda males listened, questioned, argued, then listened some more. As spring darted warm fingers into frozen draws and hollows, the lessons ended.
Ninth Quadrant Force Captain Vaakne lifted his scaled head as the orderly entered. "Jazut, this is what?"
"Captain, the Benda at gate there are."
Vaakne stood. "Attack?"
The orderly gestured in the negative. "Talk it is they want."
Captain Vaakne buckled on his sidearms. "Guard to walls posted?"
The orderly gestured in the affirmative. "To walls posted, Captain."
Armath watched as the heavy Ninth Quadrant officer waddled from the mining complex gate. He looked up to see many of the scaled heads of the Quadrant soldiers looking back. The Quadrant officer waddled around the few remaining patches of ice and came to a halt in front of Armath. "Negias si naad, Benda?"
Armath shook his massive head. "Does the scaled creature understand English?"
Vaakne's slitted eyes narrowed. "The English I speak. What is that you and the others here want?"
Armath extended a roll of papers and handed it to the officer. "Take this, creature. The papers are our constitution, the record of our election, and our government's application for representation among the planets of the Ninth Quadrant Federation." Armath pointed at the roll of papers. "In there you will find my government's demand that Ninth Quadrant Forces be removed from Bendadn. Should you not leave, Bendadn shall request the United Quadrants to remove you."