Hal Clement - The Nitrogen Fix

“I hadn’t heard of such arrangements being made with Nomads,” she said. “I know that people sometimes trade with them, and I’d heard that some people were careless enough of the rules to let new varieties of plant survive. I’m very surprised that such materials were actually used. I don’t see what anyone would want with copper or glass. I’ve seen a few tools made of the metal, and of course the roof of the air section has glass in it to let the sunlight in; but surely no one is going to build more air rooms.”

“Glass can be used for tools, too,” the man pointed out, drawing his knife and handing it to her. She examined it with interest and returned it.

Neither thought of any distinction between tool and weapon.

“Well, I haven’t heard of any special want for either of them,” the woman finally repeated.

“Come on, let’s find this creature. Wait — maybe one of us should go back to the stairway. There’s only one to this level. That will keep it from getting away. It could circle back and get there ahead of us if we don’t; there aren’t any dead ends in these tunnels. Again she had to clarify several of her terms to the Nomad.

“I’m not sure I could find the stairway,” Earrin admitted. “if you think it should be watched, you’ll have to show me the way, or get some more help. Do you think you can take care of the animal if you catch itby yourself?”

She was silent for a short time. “I don’t know,” she said at last. “Maybe we should stay together.”

“I don’t believe it would hurt you. I’ve seen the one I mentioned often enough without ever having trouble with it. Of course, that woman with the group that had me last night was saying terrible things about them — that they ate their own children, and that sort of thing. Is that what bothers you?”

“What woman? Was this the same group you were talking about? I never heard such a story in my life.”

Again Fyn spent some time explaining, interrupting the search once more. For some reason, the woman now seemed even more upset than she had been at the first sight of the native. She was wearing a very perturbed expression when he had finished telling about the “Invaders” as described by his recent captors.

“I think I see some of what’s going on,” she said slowly. Tell me, did any of these people use — well — dirty language.”

“Such as what?”

“I–I can’t give you any examples. About — you know — the things which were done to ruin the world.”

Fyn thought he saw what she meant.

“You mean things like expressions from the Science Myths.” Even the word science caused the woman to cringe a little, but she managed to answer.

“Yes — that sort of thing.”

“I wouldn’t say so-not the words, anyway. They did say they were trying to capture the animals they called Invaders to find out how they could be killed. They dodged the words, but what they were planning was certainly — that word you just now didn’t like. Calling it something else doesn’t change it.

They didn’t believe the usual story about the way the air changed — ”

“It’s not a story! That’s what happened. People tried to use — that method — to grow more food. It was a way to get more nitrogen, that their food plants needed, into the ground. The nitrogen combined with the oxygen, and there was a lot more nitrogen even then, so — ”

“I’ve heard the details. Many times. The point is that these people don’t believe it; they think the Invaders did something to get the oxygen out of the air. They want to change it back, and think they’ll have to get rid of the animals first.”

“I know now.” The woman’s face was eloquent with disgust. “They were all pretty young, weren’t they?”

“Yes. Middle teens, I’d say — just about grown up.

“That’s it. Those delinquents over in Hemenway. But I didn’t think they actually meant to use such methods. Most of us thought they were merely youngsters with the usual no-one-can-tell-me-what-to-do idea holding on a little late. I suppose — ” her voice trailed off, and she was thinking again.

Fyn was almost as surprised as, Bones would have been at the implication that Hillers were not all one in mind and spirit, but he was better able than the Observer would have been to believe it. He knew that the basic anti-Science religion differed in dogmatic detail from city to city, but he had never encountered until now a group which flatly denied it. He resumed the search along the corridors silently, not wanting to continue the conversation until he had made more sense of the new information. The woman, whose name he did not yet know and who, he suddenly realized, had never bothered to ask for his, seemed to feel much the same. She checked the rooms on her side of the tunnel in complete silence for some minutes.

She had gotten several doorways ahead of him, the rooms on her side being all single while most of those on Fyn’s were two- and three-chambered suites. He was just emerging from one of these into the main tunnel when he glimpsed two figures disappearing into doorways on the other side, both well ahead of him. The more distant one was slower moving, and he had no trouble recognizing his partner in the search; the other, seen more briefly but more closely, was equally easy to identify. He sprang silently toward the doorway through which it had vanished.

The creature had seen him, too, and made no attempt to hide further. It waited, just inside the door, out of sight of the woman if she should come back to the corridor.It was not Bones; that was evident the moment Earrin entered the room. It was not even as tall as the man himself, though its shape was identical with that of the native. Why it was traveling in the tunnels of Great Blue Hill was a mystery. If it had escaped from its captors, who had apparently been in Hemenway if the woman knew what she was talking about, it should be outside by now — or perhaps it was as lost as Fyn himself. He would have liked to ask it, but could think of no way to do so. It might, of course, have learned to understand some spoken words during its captivity, but it probably had the same difficulty in distinguishing phonemes as Bones; and in any case it had no voice with which to answer questions.

Fyn was naturally startled when the tentacles began gesturing meaningfully at him.

“Earrin. I wasn’t quite sure it was you at first, but followed you to make certain. Should I keep out of sight, or is it all right for this person you are with to see us together and communicating? And can you help me either to get outside, or to find food in here?”

“Bones! What on earth have they done to you? Never mind, you can explain later — yes, there should be food in the air center, and I can find that. It’s not far from here. Come on.”

Much of this was of course spoken aloud, and the woman heard the words from farther along the tunnel. She came back hastily.

“You caught it!” she exclaimed happily. Then her attitude changed abruptly. “Why — you were talking to it! How can you talk to an animal? Did you train it, the way people did when there were other animals in the world?” Then her expression changed from curiosity and amazement to anger.

“You have met it before — you did know it! You-lied-to-me! What kind of Nomad are you? At least we could always believe them!”

Fyn was even angrier. As the woman spoke, he too had jumped to an unbelievable conclusion, but it seemed to be the only one the data permitted. He snarled back, “You filthy hypocrites! So experiment is a dirty word, is it? Science is evil, and ruined the world, you say? And the people who use it are delinquents? Don’t talk to me about lying. You Hillers have been experimenting on my friend! Come on, Bones, let’s go. We’ll get your food and my air if we have to knock some of these subhumans down flights of stairs. Then we’ll get out of here!”