Arthur Zagat - The Golden Age of Science Fiction Volume IX

“I’d sure hate to march those two hundred miles at this time of year!”

“March? Through those swamps? Every time we run a patrol through them….”

Fielding was interrupted by a knock on the door and a skinny young Terran with sergeant’s chevrons on his shorts stuck his head through from the other room and said, “Major Chapelle’s on the voice radio, sir. He’s calling from battalion headquarters and wants Captain Norton.”

“Tell him Norton’s up playing footsies with the Resident’s wife,” Fielding said, “You’d think those people down at the river would have enough to do without bothering us in the heat of the day, wouldn’t you?”

The sergeant looked shocked and started to withdraw his head. Terrence frowned Fielding into silence and called to the sergeant, “Just a minute, Rogers. I’ll talk to the Major.”

Major Chapelle was a thickset, balding man in his late forties. Even the blazing suns of Naraka hadn’t succeeded in burning the sickly yellow color off his face. In the vision screen he looked like a man on his last legs. Whatever was wrong with him didn’t help his temper, Terrence thought as he lowered himself gently into a seat before the screen.

“O’Mara! Where in hell is Norton?” he demanded.

“Well, sir, you see….” began Terrence.

“Never mind! I’ve a pretty good idea where he is. A fine time to be chasing skirts! Well, get this straight, O’Mara. Orders have come through and we’re pulling the battalion out. We’re ordered back to Little Texas. We’re going to give up these positions along the river tonight and pull back into Dust Bin. The Sun Maid will stand by to evacuate us. You people are to come too. Everybody has to get out, both the military and civilians. All hell’s broken loose down river. The Rumi are across the Muddy in half a dozen places. They’ve cut the 5th to pieces. New Chicago thinks that those cats have been bringing troops in from space all along despite the agreement by both sides not to do so. And now they have us way outnumbered.” The Major’s voice held a thin edge of hysteria.

“Is there any action along our front, Major?” Terrence asked quickly, hoping to stop the flow of talk before Chapelle’s hysteria communicated itself to the enlisted men who were sitting or lying about the command post.

“Not yet; just patrols across the river so far. We’ve got to get out, O’Mara, and get out fast. They’ll be all over us if we don’t. The Colonel says for Norton to have everything ready to go. He wants the depot destroyed. Everything’s got to go, everything we can’t take along. The Sun Maid won’t have time for more than one trip. He wants the HQ company and the civilians on board by tomorrow morning at the latest.”

“What about the Rifles, sir?”

“What? The what?”

“The native troops, sir. The Narakan Rifles.” Terrence grated.

“The Rifles? Good God, man! We haven’t time for nonsense. The Rifles are only Greenbacks, aren’t they? You get Norton started burning those stores.”

Terrence put down the microphone very carefully to keep from slamming it down and stalked back into his quarters. Angrily he began to take his radiation clothing from its hooks on the wall.

“What the devil is eating you?” demanded Bill Fielding.

“We’re pulling out, lock, stock and barrel,” Terrence told him.

“Pulling out? Whoweee! I knew Mrs. Fielding didn’t raise her boy to be a fried egg. Goodbye, Dust Bin! Hello, New Chi!” Bill was up on his hands and knees pounding on his cot. “But what’s the matter with you? You like this place?”

“They’re leaving the Rifles,” Terrence said, zipping up his protective coveralls as he left the room.

II

Stepping outside on Naraka with the full power of Alpha and Beta Centauri beating down was like stepping into a river of fire. Even with the cooling unit in his suit, Terrence was aware of the searing heat that filled the parade ground. Looking off across the makeshift native huts, he could see the bright sides of a huge space ship-like object. The big dirigible Sun Maid was lying in an open field. It’s a funny world, he thought to himself, where you have to use dirigibles for planetary travel. But a dirigible was the only practical aircraft when you had to use steam turbine engines because of the lack of gasoline and the economic impracticability of transporting it in the limited cargo holds of the occasional spacers that came out from Sol.

The Narakan Rifles were marching toward him now, the band doing absolutely nothing for The Wearing of the Green. Three hundred big, green bodied, beady eyed, frog-like creatures were marching in the boiling heat with their non-coms croaking out orders in English which might have come out of Alice in Wonderland.

As they marched by him, he snapped a salute. Watching them closely he tried to find two men who were in step with each other or one man who had his rifle at the right angle. Unable to find either, he stood there conscious of failure; failure which went beyond mere military precision however. Sloppiness at review could have been overlooked if he had been able to find that the Narakans had any ability as fighting men but after a year of training they seemed almost as hopeless as they had at first. It wasn’t that they were completely unintelligent. In fact, other than the Galactic traveling Rumi, they were the only extra-solar race of intelligent beings encountered by man so far. It was just, he thought, that the hundreds of years during which the Rumi had dominated their planet had reduced the Narakans to a state of almost complete ineptitude.

He stood there as they passed in review three times because he knew that his presence pleased and encouraged them. Then he turned, and with dragging feet made his way down Dust Bin’s single street toward Government House.

In a few minutes he was standing in the cool, air conditioned living room of the Wilsons. Wilson was seated at his desk rummaging through some papers while Norris and Mrs. Wilson were lounging in contour chairs admiring each other over tall, frosty drinks.

They took the news just as he expected them to. Wilson ran his hand through his sparse, gray hair and murmured something about it being a shame to have to leave the natives on their own after having more or less dragged them out of their comfortable swamps. A glance from his wife silenced him.

“What the hell,” Norris said, “they’re only blasted thick witted Greenbacks.”

Mrs. Wilson yawned, “It’ll be something of a bother packing but it’ll certainly be a pleasure to get back to New Chicago. Some women’s husbands get good posts in half-way civilized parts of the Universe. I don’t know why I should always have to be stuck in every backwater, hick town there is.”

Wilson smiled apologetically, “Now, dear….” he began but was interrupted by the sudden ringing of the telephone on the table near Norris’ chair.

“Get that, will you, O’Mara?” the captain said, making no attempt to reach for it, “It’s probably the Command Post.”

Terrence put the phone to his ear angrily and growled into it. An excited Bill Fielding was on the line. “Terry? Is that you? Fielding here. Hell’s breaking loose. There’s a bunch of blasted Rumi trying to force their way into town. They attacked the sentries down this way and may be heading for your end of town too.”

Terrence dropped the phone and headed for the door. “Rumi!” he shouted and there were shouts and cries from outside in answer. Then he heard the clack, clack, clack of Rumi spring guns. Windows of the room crashed in and Wilson collapsed across his desk. Norton grabbed Mrs. Wilson and pulled her down onto the floor. Terrence dropped to his hands and knees and continued toward the door as he drew his forty-five.