Throy Read online

  The time had come for his departure. A good deal of L-B Construction business awaited him at Zaster, on Yaphet by Gilbert’s Green Star. He must undertake a comprehensive overview of his far-flung enterprises. There would be consultations, feasibility studies of new projects, and a flurry of executive decisions. Then, unless emergency called him elsewhere, he would continue across space to Rosalia and the work which had become his preoccupation.

  Egon and Cora Tamm had arranged a farewell party for Lewyn Barduys at Riverview House. After lunch the guests went to sit on the terrace. Autumn had come to Araminta Station; the air carried a faint reek of wood smoke and old leaves. Spatters of sunlight sifted through the trees; the river flowed placidly to the side, almost directly under the terrace. A mood of gentle melancholy pervaded sky, air and all the landscape.

  On the terrace conversation was languid and voices were muted. Among the company were folk originally from Stroma: ex-Warden Algin Ballinder, his wife Etrune and his daughter Sunje; another ex-Warden, Wilder Fergus and his spouse Dame Larica; several of Wayness’ old friends: Tancred Sahuz and Alyx-Marie Swarn. Also on hand were Dame Lamy Offaw and her son Uther, the one-time Bold Lion, Scharde Clattuc, Claude Laverty and his spouse Walda. Bodwyn Wook sat somewhat apart, a loose-crowned black cap pulled low over his forehead. Glawen thought that he seemed out of sorts; certainly none of his jaunty mannerisms were on display.

  For a time the company discussed the unprecedented amount of home construction now in progress across the Araminta enclave, which made for many delays. Dame Lamy declared that blunders, obfuscation and inefficiency at Bureau D was responsible for the inconveniences. She suggested that Lewyn Barduys call in L-B Construction and put an end to the muddle. Barduys was inclined to agree with her assessment of Bureau D, but he politely rejected the proposal. Now then, if Dame Lamy had asked him to build a dozen more wilderness lodges, he would be only too happy to oblige. There were sites on Throy which cried out for quiet little inns: for instance, on Throop’s Heath, where the andorils played their odd version of bowls; also, among the rocks above Cape Wale, where the great southerly storms dashed waves against the cliffs.

  The proposals were interesting, said Dame Lamy tartly, but if Lewyn Barduys had his way, there would be hostelries at two-mile intervals everywhere across Deucas and Throy, and why forget Ecce? Were the tourists not interested in horrid monsters?

  Barduys conceded that, without a doubt, Dame Lamy knew best, and that he would be guided by her views.

  For a time the group sat quietly, lulled by the tranquility of the afternoon. Egon Tamm sighed and roused himself. “The bad times are gone; there is nothing left to smite and destroy save Bureau D.”

  “Bower Diffin does not deserve execution,” said Glawen, referring to the Bureau D supervisor, “even though it will be two months before we can have our excavations.”

  “True,” sniffed Larica Fergus. “But a good horse-whipping would smarten him up a bit.”

  Uther Offaw, who was in training as an academician in the field of historical philosophy, said grandly: “The present is now! The past is gone and already seems unreal! We have entered an age of blandness; it is safe to become outraged over small nuisances.”

  Larica Fergus said tartly: “I have known enough sensation; I am happy with blandness.”

  Uther Offaw frowned up at the sky. “And when does blandness become lethargy; when does lethargy lapse into sloth? Where then are the higher virtues? Where is romance? Achievement? Adventure? Glory? Heroism?”

  “I am too old for such exploits,” said Dame Larica. “I fell down yesterday and hurt my knee.”

  “It is all beside the boards,” snapped Dame Lamy Offaw. “We have had a surfeit of tragedy. Even the mention of your sore leg is in poor taste.”

  Ex-Warden Ballinder pulled thoughtfully at his black pirate’s beard. “Recent events have been awesome, but perhaps they may serve as a salutary catharsis, especially if our descendants learn from our travail.”

  Sunje Ballinder told her father: “I am your descendant. What is it again that I am supposed to learn?”

  “Remain honest, steadfast and true! Adopt no weird philosophies. Avoid exotic cults and intellectual miasma.”

  “You should have told me sooner,” said Sunje. “The hay is in the barn.”

  Algin Ballinder gave his head a sad shake. “I wonder what you will tell your own children.”

  “Sunje is rather secretive,” said Alyx-Marie. “She may well hide their shoes to keep them home of nights and out of mischief.”

  Sunje stretched her long legs languorously. “I am not at all secretive; quite the reverse. No one asks my opinion because I make such embarrassing disclosures. At the moment I can’t help but feel that the world is a less amusing place with Dame Clytie gone. I mourn for the old she-buffalo.”

  Dame Lamy Offaw showed a prim smile. “There is still Bodwyn Wook and his picturesque antics. Enjoy them while he is still with us; once he goes you will not soon find his like again.”

  Bodwyn Wook jerked himself forward and struck the table with his fist. “Your words are a catalyst! As of this instant, I resign my position as Superintendent of Bureau B! The decision is irrevocable! When now you insult me you insult a liberated man, so beware!”

  The statement stimulated a spate of excited outcries.

  “Impossible! Bureau B will be a hollow shell; who will chide the criminals? Who will scold the Bureau B constables?”

  Wayness called out “We will need a new Superintendent. I nominate Rufo Kathcar!”

  Cora Tamm said gently: “Bodwyn Wook is just joking. He wants to dissolve our ennui.”

  “I distrust the old rascal,” grumbled Dame Lamy Offaw, an ancient adversary of Bodwyn Wook at Garden Society meetings. “He is a master at getting everyone’s hopes up.”

  Bodwyn Wook roared: “I am doing one thing only. I am trying to slip quietly away into oblivion, and even this causes an uproar!”

  Egon Tamm asked Barduys: “Where is Flitz, by the way? She was invited, and so was Eustace Chilke; neither are on hand.”

  Barduys smiled. “Flitz and Eustace Chilke, like Bodwyn Wook, have resigned their positions. Chilke now commands a Fortunatus space yacht. He made this fact known to Flitz; they conferred at length and in the end decided to become vagabonds and wander among the planets.”

  Sunje was startled. “Chilke? Flitz?”

  “Yes. They have more in common than one might think. I expect that one of these days they will drop by Araminta Station and bring you news of distant places.”

  Later, when most of the guests had departed. Barduys joined Glawen and Wayness at the side of the terrace. “Chilke holds title to the Fortunatus we left at Ballyloo. Neither Egon Tamm nor Bodwyn Wook will protest, in view of certain concessions I have made to them, including the Clayhacker space yacht. I also advised them in regard to the holdings of Titus and Simonetta Zigonie. The Conservator is entitled to sue the pair for damages, which the two caused to be inflicted on Stroma and the surrounding cliff. This is real property owned by the Conservancy. After securing a judgment, the Conservator could sell Shadow Valley Ranch for a large sum, which could be added to the ‘Floreste’ fund. I indicated that L-B construction would build the New Orpheum on favorable terms. For these reasons Bodwyn Wook failed to so much as whimper when I suggested turning over the Fortunatus to Chilke and Flitz.”

  “That is very generous of you,” said Wayness.

  Barduys merely waved his hand. “Now then: to another detail, namely my wedding present to the two of you. It is another Fortunatus, identical to the first. It is waiting for you at the space terminal, here at the Station. I wish you the enjoyment of it, and of all your years together. The keys and codebox are at the dispatcher’s office.”

  Glawen stammered: “This is a most wonderful gift! I don’t know what to say.”

  Barduys, not ordinarily demonstrative, touched Glawen’s shoulder. ”I have a great deal of money, but few friends. I count you, and now
Wayness, among them. And I need not mention the deep cold hole at Bainsey Castle which we shared.” After a pause he continued. “I must go, before I become sentimental. One last word: please come to Rosalia in your Fortunatus and visit me at the Bainsey-Castle Lodge, when it opens for business. Flitz and Chilke have promised to be on hand.”

  “Then we will be there too.”

  A few minutes later Egon Tamm took Bodwyn Wook aside. “I cannot believe that you have definitely resigned your position. What will you do with yourself? You will be like a fish out of water.”

  Bodwyn Wook made an expansive gesture. “This talk of vagabonds and wandering here and there has made me nervous. I have never been anywhere save a week’s excursion to Soum, which took me to ten breweries and four temples. Everyone has something to say of Old Earth; some praise it mightily: others tell me that they put out their shoes to be cleaned, only to have them stolen. I must see for myself. When I come home, I will be chairman for the New Orpheum project. Floreste will have his great dream after all.”

  Cora Tamm brought out a fresh pot of tea, and sitting on the terrace the group watched the sun settle into the hills beyond the river.

  Glossaries

  * * *

  Glossary A

  The Gnosis is a philosophical quasi-religious system devoid of both formal organization and a hierarchy of priests. The thrifty Soumi reasoned that a credo purporting to provide enlightenment must be readily comprehensible; if expensive specialists were needed for interpretation, the doctrine must be considered unsuitable and impractical. One of the elders deputed to select an optimum doctrine was blunt, averring that ‘only fools would foist a religion upon themselves which cost them their hard-earned money.’

  Gnosis itself was not without interest, and embodied a number of novel concepts. The Cosmos, or ALL, as it was known, included the whole of its own equipment and required no further assistance in the form of a deity or ‘prime mover,’ thus obviating the need for an expensive class of intermediaries, priests or other interpreters of the divine will.

  ALL existed in the shape of a four-dimensional torus rotating at a stately rate, so that beginnings and endings constantly merged with each other, and each human being lived over and over again in the same body, either perfecting itself through careful practice of the Ameliorations, and eventually moving upward or failing, whereupon it must attempt the same life again, over and over until satisfactory adjustments had been made, so that it might enter a new ‘Xoma,’ which once again must be lived in exact accord with propriety. In general, Gnosis was considered a cheerful and optimistic doxology, since the worst that could happen to a transgressor was that he or she might backslide a Xoma or two.

  The Ameliorations were taught children along with other schoolwork, so that at an early age they were trained to gentility, cleanliness, industry, thrift, and respect for their elders.

  From time to time an individual might show strange or unusual personality traits, so that he became known as a ‘wild jay,’ and prompted his family and friends to a good deal of rueful head-shaking. Often these ‘wild jays’ would go to live in a special quarter of Soumjiana, known as ‘Lemuria.’ In the streets and plazas of Soumjiana hundreds of vendors grilled sausages on braziers and sold them to passers-by; most of the city’s sausage vendors, musicians and street artists were ‘Lemurians.’

  In his private life, the Soumian was generally prim and fastidious, his most notable vice being, perhaps, over-indulgence at the table. His sexual habits were somewhat mysterious; overt sexual misconduct, however, incurred his disapproval, and also aroused a great spate of gossip. The offending parties quickly became notorious, and slunk about their daily routines trying to pretend nothing had happened.

  To the off-world observer wealthy folk were hard to distinguish from persons of ordinary income, since everyone made a great point of owning only ‘the best,’ meaning goods of durability, excellence of finish and practical function. The affluent could be picked out only by the most subtle of indications, and great skill was used in demonstrating one’s position in life while carefully avoiding ‘bouschterness’1. All Soumi, no matter what their caste, reckoned themselves ladies and gentlemen. A paradox of Soumi behaviour is their emphatic dedication to egalitarianism, while simultaneously supporting a society of rigid stratification into as many as twenty levels of status. These status levels are not formally recognized, nor are they characterized by a nomenclature; nevertheless their reality impinges upon everyone and he or she is continually gauging his or her personal status against that of everyone in sight. Soumi are insistent upon asserting superiority of caste over their inferiors, while caustic and envious of those who assert superiority over themselves. Such tensions create a dynamic quality of striving and maintenance of genteel standards; scandals are always enjoyed if for no other reason than the diminished status of the persons involved, which, by a sort of transcendental osmosis, augments the status of other folk.

  The workings of this mysterious system are fascinating. If a dozen strangers are placed in a room, within minutes the hierarchy of caste will have been established. How? No one knows, save the Soumi themselves.

  Despite the absence of titles or precise nomenclature, the level of a person’s caste is denoted exactly by a subtle use of linguistic tonality, or phrasing of a sentence, or the choice of appropriate terminology: nuances which the Soumi ear instantly recognizes. Still, the overt basis of Soumi society is expressed in an almost aggressive doctrine, a slogan taught in the schoolroom: “Each person the equal of all! Each person a full-fledged Ameliorative! Each person of full gentility!”

  * * *

  Glossary B

  YIP NOMENCLATURE

  Each Yip adult is denominated by six names, except in the case of special circumstances. The Yip, when asked to identify himself, responds with his formal name, for instance: Idris Nadelbac Myrvo. ‘Idris’ is his birth name, chosen for symbolic attributes. ‘Idris,’ for example, indicates a personality daring but unassuming. ‘Nadelbac’ is the lineage name derived from the father; ‘Myrvo’ denotes the mother’s lineage. Additionally, there is the familiar name, to be used by non-Yips or persons friendly but not intimate. For instance, Idris Nadelbac Myrvo might use the common or ‘open’ name ‘Carlo.’ There would be two further names: both secret and self-applied. The first designated a quality to which the person aspired, such as ‘the Lucky’ or ‘the Harmonious.’ The second, most secret of all was the sixth name: ‘the Ruha.’ It was also the most important of all the names, and, in effect, was the man himself.

  The ‘Ruha’ figured in a peculiar Yip custom. At the center of old Yipton there had been a cavernous hall, the Caglioro. The dimensions of the Caglioro astounded tourists, when guides led them along a rickety balcony forty feet above the floor, with the ceiling still another forty feet overhead. From this vantage the tourists could overlook an area of amazing extent, crowded with Yips, squatting around small flickering lamps. The tourists always complained of the terrible stench, and spoke of ‘the Big Chife.’ Nevertheless they never failed to be awed by the carpet of human flesh below, only darkly to be seen by the twinkling little lamps; indeed it was a scene surpassing their imaginations. Inevitably they asked their guide: “What brings these folk here? Why do they crouch in the darkness?”

  “They have nothing better to do,” was the usual bland response.

  “But they are doing something! They seem to be moving or stirring about; we can see this by the shine of the little lamps.”

  “They come to meet their friends, and trade fish, and they also come to gamble. It is their obsession.”

  If the guide were in a good mood, or if he hoped for a large gratuity, he might describe the gambling. “It is not always a light-hearted game. The play often becomes intense. The stakes might be coins or tools or fish: anything of value. When an unlucky or unskillful gambler loses all he owns, what then does he use for his desperate wager? He puts up a fragment of his Ruha: in effect, himself. If he wins, he
is once more whole. If he loses (and being unskillful or unlucky, this is often the case) he parts with a one-fortieth portion of himself, such being the recognized fractions into which a Ruha may be divided.

  “This deficiency is noted by fixing a white cord to the hair at the back of the head. Often he continues to lose, and pieces of him may be scattered all over Yipton, and ever more white strands dangle down his back. If and when he loses all forty parts of his Ruha, he has lost all of himself and is no longer allowed to gamble. Instead he is called ‘No-name’ and made to stand at the side of the Caglioro, staring blankly over the scene. His Ruha is gone; he is no longer a person. His first four names are meaningless, while his wonderful fifth name has become a horrid joke.

  “Out on the floor of the Caglioro, another process starts - the negotiations between those who owned parts of the Ruha, in order that the entire property may be brought under a single ownership. The bargaining is sometimes hard, sometimes easy; sometimes the parts are used as gambling stakes. But in the end the Ruha is brought under the ownership of a single individual, who thereby augments his status. The ’No-name’ is now a slave, though he owes neither service nor duty to his master; he obeys no orders and runs no errands. It is worse; he is no longer a whole man; his Ruha has been taken into the soul of his master. He is nothing: before

  he is dead he has become a ghost.

  “There is a single mode of escape. The man’s father and mother, or his grandfather and grandmother, may give up their Ruhas to the creditor, so that the first Ruha is returned to its original owner. He is once more a whole man, free to gamble as he chooses out on the floor of the Caglioro.”

  * * *

  Footnotes