Энн Маккефри: The Ship Who Won

Tall glanced toward the controls. The switches pressed themselves, dials and levers moved without a hand touching them. The great engines stilled to a barely perceptible hum.

«At last,» he gestured, «after five hundred generations we have our property back. We can come forward once again.»

He seemed less enthusiastic once the extent of the damage began to emerge. Series of lights showed that several of the turbines were running at half efficiency or less. Some were not functioning at all. At one time, some unknown engineer had tied together a handful of the generators under a single control, but the generators in question were nowhere near one another on the cave floor.

«It'll take a lot of fixing,» Keff said, examining the mechanism with the frogs crowded in around him. The indicators in some of the dials hadn't moved in so long they had corroded to their pins. He snapped his fingernail at one of them, trying to jar it loose. «We'll have to figure out if any of the repair parts can be made out of components I have on hand. If they're too esoteric, you might need to send off for them, providing they're still making them on your home planet.»

«Home?» one of the globe-frogs signed back, with the fillip that meant an interrogative.

«If you have the coordinates, we have your transportation,» Keff offered happily, signing away to the oops, eeps, and ops of IT's shorthand dictation. «Our job is to make contact with other races, and we're very pleased to meet you. My government would be delighted to open communications with yours.»

«That is all well, Keff,» Chaumel asked, «but do not forget about us. What of the mages? They will be wondering what happened to their items of power. Blackouts normally last only a few moments. There will be pandemonium.»

«And what for the future?» Plenna asked.

«Your folk will have to realize that you now coexist with the globe-frogs,» Keff said thoughtfully «And, Tall, she's right. You are going to have to do something about the mages. They're dependent upon the system to a certain extent. Can we negotiate some kind of share agreement?»

«They can have it all,» Tall said, with a scornful gesture toward the jury-rigged control board. «All this is ruined. Ruined! You come from the stars. Why do you not take my people back to our homeworld? We are effectively dispossessed. We've been ignored since the day we were robbed by the Flat Ones. No one will notice our absence. Let the thieves who have used our machinery have it and the husk that remains of this planet.»

«We'd be happy to do that,» Keff said, carefully «but forgive me, Tall, you won't have much in common with the people of your homeworld anymore, will you? You were born here. Five hundred generations of your people have been native Ozrans. Just when it could start to get better, do you really want to leave?»

«Hear, hear,» said Carialle.

One of the amphibioids looked sad and made a gesture that threw the idea away. The Frog Prince looked at him. «I guess we do not. Truth, I do not, but what to do?»

«What was your peoples mission? Why did you come here?»

«To grow things on this green and fertile planet,» Tall signed, almost a dance of graceful gestures, as if repeating a well-learned lesson. He stopped. «But nothing is green and fertile anymore like in the old stories. It is dry, dusty, cold.»

«Don't you want to try and bring the planet back to a healthy state?»

«How?»

Keff touched the small amphibioid gently on the back and drew Chaumel closer with the other arm. «The know-how is obviously still in your people's oral tradition. Why not fulfill your ancestors' hopes and dreams? Work together with the humans. Share with them. You can fix the machinery. I agree that you should make contact with your homeworld, and we'll help with that, but don't go back to stay. Ask them for technical support and communication. They'll be thrilled to know that any of the colonists are still alive.»

The sad frog looked much happier. «Leader, yes!» he signed enthusiastically.

«Help us,» Keff urged, raising his hands high. «We'll try to establish mutual respect among the species. If it fails, Carialle and I can always take you back once we've fixed the system here.»

Chaumel cleared his throat and spoke, mixing sign language with the spoken linga esoterka. «You have much in common with our lower class,» he said. «You'll find much sympathy among the farmers and workers.»

«We know them,» Tall signed scornfully. «They kick us.»

Keff signaled for peace.

«Once they know you're intelligent, that will change. The human civilization on this planet has slid backward to a subsistence farming culture. Only with your help can Ozran join the confederation of intelligent races as a voting member.»

«That's a slippery slope you're negotiating there, Keff,» Carialle warned, noticing Plenna's shocked expression. Chaumel, on the other hand, was nodding and concealing a grin. He approved of Keff's eliding the truth for the sake of diplomacy.

«For mutual respect and an equal place we might stay,» the Frog Prince signed after conferring with his fellows.

«You won't regret it,» Keff assured him. «You'll be able to say to your offspring that it was your generation, allied with another great and intelligent race, who completed your ancestors' tasks.»

«To go from nothing to everything,» the Frog Prince signed, his pop eyes going very wide, which Keff interpreted as a sign of pleasure. «The ages may not have been wasted after all.»

«Only if we can keep this planet from blowing up,» Carialle reminded them. Keff relayed her statement to the others.

«But what needs to be done to bring the system back to a healthy balance?» Chaumel asked.

«Stop using it,» Keff said simply. «Or at least, stop draining the system so profligately as you have been doing. The mages will have to be limited in future to what power remains after the legitimate functions have been supplied: weather control, water conservation, and whatever it takes to stabilize the environment. That's what those devices were originally designed to do. Only the most vital uses should be made of what power's left over. And until the frogs get the system repaired, that's going to be precious little. You saw how much colder and drier Ozran has become over the time human beings have been here. It won't be long until this planet is uninhabitable, and you have nowhere else to go.»

«I understand perfectly,» Chaumel said. «But the others are not going to like it.»

«They must see for themselves.» Plenna spoke up unexpectedly. «Let them come here.»

«Your girlfriend has a good idea,» Carialle told Keff.

«Show them this place. The globe-frogs can keep everyone on short power rations. Give them enough to fly their chariots here, but not enough to start a world war.»

«Just enough,» Keff stressed as the Frog Prince went to make the adjustment, «so they don't feel strangled, but let's make it clear that the days of making it snow firecrackers are over.»

«Hah!» Chaumel said. «What would impress them most is if you could make it snow snow! Everyone will have to see it for themselves, or they will not believe. The meeting must be called at once.»

The Frog Prince and his companions paddled back to Keff. «We will stay here to feel out the machinery and learn what is broken.»

Keff stood up, stamping to work circulation back into his legs.

«And I'll stay here, too. Since there is no manual or blueprints, Carialle and I will plot schematics of the mechanism, and see what we can help fix. Cari?»

«I'll be there with tools and components before you can say alakazam, Sir Galahad,» she replied.

«I had better stay, too, then,» Plenna said. «Someone needs to keep others from entering if the silver tower leaves the plain. She attracts too much curiosity.»