“I wouldn’t recommend that.”
“Why not?”
“Forbes is very popular with the crew. They think he’s damned unreasonable, but they wouldn’t be happy sailing without him.”
“More disharmony,” Sven mused. “Dangerous, very dangerous. But damn it, I can’t leave the new man behind. I won’t. It isn’t fair! Who runs this ship, me or Forbes?”
“A very interesting question,” Vilkin observed, and ducked quickly as the irate captain hurled his glass at him.
Captain Sven went to the ship’s library, where he glanced over Coming of Age in Georgia and Folkways of Mountain-Georgia. They didn’t seen to help much. He thought for a moment, and glanced at his watch. Two hours to blastoff! He hurried to the Navigation Room.
Within the room was Ks’rat. A native of Venus, Ks’rat was perched on a stool inspecting the auxiliary navigating instruments. He was gripping a sextant in three hands, and was polishing the mirrors with his foot, his most dexterous member. When Sven walked in the Venusian turned orange-brown to show his respect for authority, then returned to his habitual green.
“How’s everything?” Sven asked.
“Fine,” said Ks’rat. “Except for the Forbes problem, of course.” He was using a manual soundbox, since Venusians had no vocal cords. At first, these sound boxes had been harsh and metallic; but the Venusians had modified them until now, the typical Venusian “voice” was a soft, velvety murmur.
“Forbes is what I came to see you about,” said Sven. “You’re non-Terran. As a matter of fact, you’re nonhuman. I thought perhaps you could throw a new light on the problem. Something I may have overlooked.”
Ks’rat pondered, then turned gray, his “uncertain” color. “I’m afraid I can’t help much, Captain Sven. We never had any racial problems on Venus. Although you might consider the sclarda situation a parallel—”
“Not really,” Sven said. “That was more a religious problem.”
“Then I have no further ideas. Have you tried reasoning with the man?”
“Everyone else has.”
“You might have better luck, Captain. As an authority symbol, you might tend to supplant the father symbol within him. With that advantage, try to make him aware of the true basis for his emotional reaction.”
“There is no basis for racial hatred.”
“Perhaps not in terms of abstract logic. But in human terms, you might find an answer and a key. Try to discover what Forbes fears. Perhaps if you can put him in better reality-contact with his own motives, he’ll come around.”
“I’ll bear all that in mind,” said Sven, with a sarcasm that was lost on the Venusian.
The intercom sounded the captain’s signal. It was the first mate. “Captain! Tower wants to know whether you’re blasting on schedule.”
“I am,” Sven said. “Secure the ship.” He put down the phone.
Ks’rat turned a bright red. It was the Venusian equivalent of a raised eyebrow.
“I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t,” Sven said. “Thanks for your advice. I’m going to talk to Forbes now.”
“By the way,” Ks’rat said, “of what race is the man?”
“What man?”
“The new man that Forbes won’t serve with.”
“How the hell should I know?” shouted Sven, his temper suddenly snapping. “Do you think I sit on the bridge inspecting a man’s racial background?”
“It might make a difference.”
“Why should it? Perhaps it’s a Mongolian that Forbes won’t serve with, or a Pakistani, or a New Yorker or a Martian. What do I care what race his diseased, impoverished little mind picks on?”
“Good luck, Captain Sven,” Ks’rat said as Sven hurried out.
James Forbes saluted when he entered the bridge, though it was not customary aboard Sven’s ship. The radioman stood at full attention. He was a tall, slender youth, tow-headed, light-skinned, freckled. Everything about him looked pliant, malleable, complaisant. Everything except his eyes, which were dark blue and very steady.
Sven didn’t know how to begin. But Forbes spoke first.
“Sir,” he said, “I want you to know I’m mighty well ashamed of myself. You’ve been a good Captain, sir, the very best, and this has been a happy ship. I feel like a worthless no-account for doing this.”
“Then you’ll reconsider?” asked Sven, with a faint glimmer of hope.
“I wish I could, I really do. I’d give my right arm for you, Cap’n, or anything else I possess.”
“I don’t want your right arm. I merely want you to serve with the new man.”
“That’s the one thing I can’t do,” Forbes said sadly.
“Why in hell can’t you?” Sven roared, forgetting his determination to use psychology.
“You just don’t understand us Georgia mountain boys,” Forbes said. “That’s how my pappy, bless his memory, raised me. That poor little old man would spin in his grave if I went against his dying wish.”
Sven stifled a curse and said, “You know the situation that leaves me in, Forbes. Do you have any suggestions?”
“Only one thing to do, sir. Angka and me’ll leave the ship. You’ll be better off short-handed than with an uncooperative crew, sir.”
“Angka is leaving with you? Wait a minute! Who’s he prejudiced against?”
“No one, sir. But him and me’s been shipmates for close to five years now, ever since we met on the freighter Stella. Where one goes, the other goes.”
A red light flickered on Sven’s control board, indicating the ship’s readiness for blastoff. Sven ignored it.
“I can’t have both of you leaving the ship,” Sven said. “Forbes, why won’t you serve with the new man?”
“Racial reasons, sir,” Forbes said tightly.
“Now listen closely. You have been serving under me, a Swede. Has that disturbed you?”
“Not at all, sir.”
“The medical officer is an Israeli. The navigator is a Venusian. The engineer is Chinese. There are Russians, New Yorkers, Melanasians, Africans, and everything else in this crew. Men of all races, creeds, and colors. You have served with them.”
“Of course I have. From earliest childhood us Mountain-Georgians expect to serve with all different races. It’s our heritage. My pappy taught me that. But I will not serve with Blake.”
“Who’s Blake?”
“The new man, sir.”
“Where’s he from?” Sven asked wearily.
“Mountain-Georgia.”
For a moment, Sven thought he hadn’t heard right. He stared at Forbes, who stared nervously back.
“From the mountain country of Georgia?”
“Yes, sir. Not too far, I believe, from where I was born.”
“This man Blake, is he white?”
“Of course, sir. White English-Scottish ancestry, same as me.”
Sven had the sensation of discovering a new world, a world no civilized man had ever encountered. He was amazed to discover that weirder customs could be found on Earth than anywhere else in the galaxy.
He said to Forbes, “Tell me about the custom.”
“I thought everybody knew about us Mountain-Georgians, sir. In the section I come from, we leave home at the age of sixteen and we don’t come back. Our customs teach us to work with any race, live with any race ... except our own.”
“Oh,” said Sven.
“This new man Blake is a white Mountain-Georgian. He should have looked over the roster and not signed for this ship. It’s all his fault, really, and if he chooses to overlook the custom, I can’t help that.”
“But why won’t you serve with your own kind?” Sven asked.
“No one knows, sir. It’s been handed down from father to son for hundreds of years, ever since the Hydrogen War.”
Sven stared at him closely, ideas beginning to form. “Forbes, have you ever had any ... feeling about Negroes?”