Mack Reynolds - The Rival Rigelians

Joe Chessman took his turn. He said obdurately, “Your paternalistic guidance, given an uncontrolled competitive system, doesn’t always work out. Take India after she gained independence from England. She tried to industrialize and had the support of the free nations. But what happened?”

Plekhanov leaned forward to take the ball. “Yes! There’s your classic example. Compare India and China. China had a planned industrial development. None of this free competition nonsense. In ten years time they had startled the world with their advances. In twenty years…”

“Yes,” Gunther said softly, “but at what price?”

Plekhanov turned on him. “At any price! In one generation they left behind the China of famine, flood, illiteracy, war lords and all the misery that had been China’s throughout history.”

Gunther said mildly, “Whether or not, in their admitted advances, they left behind all the misery that had been China’s is debatable, sir.”

Plekhanov began to bellow an angry retort but Amschel Mayer popped suddenly to his feet and lifted a hand to quiet the others.

“Our solution has just come to me!”

Plekhanov glowered at him.

Mayer said excitedly, “Remember what the Co-ordinator told us? This expedition of ours is the first of its type. Even though we fail, the very mistakes we make will be invaluable. Our task is to learn how to bring backward peoples into an industrialized culture in roughly half a century.”

He had their attention, but the majority of the occupants of the messroom scowled at him. Thus far he had said nothing new.

Mayer went on enthusiastically. “Up until now, in our debates, we’ve had two basic suggestions on procedure. I have advocated a system of free competition; my learned colleague has been of the opinion that a strong state and a planned, not to say totalitarian economy, would be the quicker.” He paused dramatically. “Very well, I am in favor of trying them both!”

They regarded him blankly.

He said with impatience, “There are two planets, at different ethnic periods it is true, but not so far apart as all that. Fine, nine of us will take Genoa and nine Texcoco.”

Plekhanov rumbled, “Fine indeed. But which group will have the use of the Pedagogue with its library, its laboratories, its shops, its weapons.”

For a moment Mayer was stopped, but Joe Chessman growled, “That’s no problem. Leave her in orbit around Rigel. We’ve got two small boats with which to ferry back and forth. Each group could have the use of her facilities any time they wished.”

“I suppose we could have periodic conferences,” Plekhanov said. “Say once every decade to compare notes and make further plans, if necessary.”

Natt Roberts was worried. “We have no instructions from the Co-ordinator suggesting that we divide our forces in any such manner.”

Mayer cut him short. “My dear Roberts, we were given carte blanche . It is up to us to decide procedure. Actually, this system realizes twice the information such expeditions as ours might ordinarily offer.”

“Texcoco for me,” Plekhanov grumbled, accepting the plan. “The more backward of the two, but under my guidance in half a century it will be the more advanced, mark me.”

“Look here,” Martin Gunther said. “Do we have two of each of the basic specialists, so that we can divide the party in such a way that neither planet will miss out in any one field?”

Amschel Mayer was beaming at the reception of his scheme. “The point is well taken, my dear Martin, however you’ll recall that our training was deliberately made such that each man spreads over several fields. This in case, during our half century without contact with Earth, one or more of us meets with accident. Besides, the Pedagogue’s library is such that any literate can soon become effective in any field to the extent needed on the Rigel planets.”

Barry Watson met Natalie Wieliczka in a narrow corridor of the Pedagogue . He darted a look up and down the hallway, then held out his arms.

“Ho, Polack,” he said huskily. “Come here.”

She was apprehensive, but she came into his embrace and offered her mouth for his kiss.

She said, “Somebody might see us.” After he had kissed her again, she said, “Barry, this is terrible. All this hiding, this pretending.”

He grinned down into her open face. “Kind of fun, though,” he said. “How lucky can a cloddy get?”

She said, “It’s not fair. Everybody else is conforming to the command…”

“You sure?” he demanded, running his right hand up through her honey brown hair, cut short as befitted shipboard life. She was not an overly pretty girl, by most standards, but she had a gentle, serious sweetness that affected most men, though unbeknownst to herself.

She frowned slightly, even as she suffered his caresses. “How do you mean?”

“I suspect,” he said wryly, “that these few kisses and hugs we allow ourselves at odd moments aren’t nearly as serious as what your pal Isobel is dispensing to just about everybody in the team. Well, everybody but Mayer and myself.”

She looked at him from the side of her eyes and said, “Are you sure you can honestly eliminate yourself?”

He squeezed her. “Absolutely.”

She sighed, still in his arms. “However, I’ll be glad when we reach Genoa, and this restriction will be off.”

“Genoa?” He pushed her back to arm length and scowled down into her face.

“Why, yes, when we land and take up our work. Certainly, Amschel Mayer can have no objection then to our openly becoming married. I…I wonder what ceremony they have. You know, when I was a student, sometimes thinking of marriage, I…”

“Genoa! But we’re going to Texcoco.”

Her eyes widened and there was quick apprehension in them.

“But Barry. I’m going to Genoa, with Mayer’s team. I…why, I automatically thought you were as well. Everybody had a free choice. Surely, you couldn’t have chosen Plekhanov’s theories. Why…

He took his hands from her completely, and tugged at his right ear in irritated distress.

“I was kind of pressured. I’m an authority on early military history. Leonid Plekhanov was of the opinion that I’d be more useful on Texcoco.”

“Barry!” her voice was distressed now. “You could change. You could tell them you’d rather work on Genoa.”

“Giving what excuse at this late date? The real one? The fact that you and I have broken ship’s regulations and fallen in love?”

She looked at him in misery.

“Besides,” he said angrily, “who’d change positions with me? Genoa is the preferred planet. It’s more advanced. The life’ll be easier. It’d be easier for you to change. Isobel’s scheduled for Texcoco, but I have a sneaking suspicion that in spite of her supposed attraction to Plekhanov, she’d jump at the chance to switch to the Genoa team.”

Her eyes dropped and she shook her head, and then shook it again, more strongly. “I couldn’t, Barry, I couldn’t work with that man. I’m afraid of him. All my intuition tells me that horrible things are going to happen on Texcoco, when Plekhanov and Joe Chessman land there with all the weapon resources of the Pedagogue behind them.”

He said, bitterly, “Why not add me to the list? I’m the military expert. True enough, through books. I’ve never seen combat in my life. But who has, in this age? I’ve got the book knowledge but not the…practical experience.”

She turned away from him, saying lowly, “You’ll learn, Barry. You’ll learn. And…I guess I’m just as glad I won’t be seeing you doing the learning. I’m a doctor, Barry. I didn’t go into my trade in anticipation of practicing on bodies broken in warfare.”