Robert Heinlein - Starman Jones

"I never thought. It just seemed like going for a stroll in the park."

Max thought darkly that he had tried to warn her. Why, even the hills around home weren't safe if a body didn't keep his eyes peeled ... you could run into a mean old bobcat, or even a bear. Person like Ellie never 'ud had enough hard knocks to knock sense into her, that was her trouble.

Presently he admitted that he himself hadn't looked for grief from anything as apparently chuckled-headed and harmless as these centaur things. Anyhow, as Sam would say, no use cryin' over spilt milk when the horse was already stolen.

"Ellie."

"Huh?"

"Do you suppose Chipsie could find her way back?"

"Why, I don't know."

"If she could, we could send a message."

Chipsie looked up. "Back?" she inquired. "Please back. Go home."

Ellie frowned. "I'm afraid Chipsie doesn't talk that well. She'd probably just hiccup and get incoherent."

"I don't mean that. I know Chipsie is no mental giant. I ..."

"Chipsie is smart!"

"Sure. But I want to send a written message and a map." He fumbled in a pocket, pulled out a stylus. "Do you have any paper?"

"I'll see." She found a folded paper in a dungaree pocket. "Oh, dear! I was supposed to take this to Mr. Giordano. Mr. Hornsby will be so vexed with me."

"What is it?"

"A requisition for number-ten wire."

"It doesn't matter now." He took the paper, scratched out the memorandum, turned it over and began to draw, stopping to consult the pictures filed in his mind for distances, which way the local sun lay, contours, and other details.

"Max?"

"Quiet, can't you?" He continued to sketch, then added: "URGENT--to First Officer Walther: Eldreth Coburn and self captured by centaurs. Be careful and watch out for their throwing ropes. Respectfully, M. Jones." He handed it to Ellie. "That ought to do it. Is there any way to fasten it to her? I sure don't want her to drop it."

"Mmm ... let me see. Turn your back, Max."

"Why?"

"Don't be difficult. Turn your back."

He did so, shortly she said, "All right now." He faced her and she handed him a ribbon. "How's this?"

"Swell!" They managed to tie the ribbon, with the note folded and firmly attached, around Mr. Chips' waist, anchoring it to a middle limb ... not too easy as the spider puppy seemed to think it was a game and was ticklish as well.

"There! Stop squirming, Chipsie, and listen. Ellie wants you to go home."

"Home?"

"Yes, home. Go back to the ship."

"Ellie go home?"

"Ellie can't go home."

"No."

"Honey, you've _got_ to."

"No."

"Look, Chipsie. You find Maggie and tell her Ellie said to give you some candy. You give Maggie this." She tugged at the tied note.

"Candy?"

"Go home. Find Maggie. Maggie will give you candy."

"Ellie go home."

"Please, Chipsie."

"Ellie," Max said urgently, "something is coming."

Eldreth looked up, saw a centaur coming through the trees. She pointed. "Look, Chipsie! They're coming! They'll catch Chipsie! Go home! Run!"

The spider puppy squealed in terror and scurried for the trees. Once on a branch she looked back and whimpered. "Go home!" screamed Ellie. "Find Maggie!"

Mr. Chips shot a glance at the centaur, then disappeared. They had no time to worry further, the centaur was almost up to them. He glanced at them and went on by; it was what followed the centaur that grabbed their attention. Ellie suppressed a shriek. "Max! They've caught everybody."

"No," he corrected grimly. "Look again." The gathering gloom had caused him to make the same mistake; it seemed that the entire ship's company trotted after the centaur in single file, ankle leashed to ankle by living ropes. But only the first glance gave such an impression. These creatures were more than humanoid--but such degraded creatures had never sailed between the stars.

They shuffled quickly along like well-trained animals. One or two looked at Ellie and Max in passing, but their stares were bovine, incurious. Small children not on leash trotted with their mothers, and once Max was startled to see a wrinkled little head peeping out of a pouch--these man-creatures were marsupials, too.

Max controlled a desire to retch and as they passed out of sight he turned to Ellie. "Gosh!"

"Max," Eldreth said hoarsely, "do you suppose we've died and gone to our punishment?"

"Huh? Don't be silly. Things are bad enough."

"I mean it. That was something right out of Dante's Inferno."

Max was swallowing uneasily and not feeling good-tempered. "Look, you can pretend you're dead if you want to. Me, I'm alive and I mean to stay so. Those things weren't men. Don't let it throw you."

"But they _were_ men. Men and women and children."

"No, they weren't. Being shaped like us doesn't make them men. Being a man is something else entirely." He scowled. "Maybe the centaurs are 'men.'"

"Oh, no--"

"Don't be too sure. They seem to run things in this country."

The discussion was cut short by another arrival. It was almost dark and they did not see the centaur until he entered their clearing. He was followed by three of the--Max decided to call them 'men' though he resented the necessity--followed by three men. They were not on leashes. All three were bearing burdens. The centaur spoke to them; they distributed what they carried.

One of them set down a large clay bowl filled with water in the space separating Max and Ellie. It was the first artifact that any human had seen on Charity and did not indicate a high level of mechanical culture, being crudely modeled and clearly not thrown on a potter's wheel; it held water, no more could be said for it. A second porter dumped a double armful of small fruits beside the bowl. Two of them splashed into the bowl, he did not bother to fish them out.

Max had to look twice to see what the third slave was carrying. It looked as if he had three large ovoid balls slung by ropes in each of his hands; second inspection showed them to be animals about the size of opossums which he carried by their tails. He went around the clearing, stopping every few feet and lifting one of his burdens to a lower branch. When he had finished they were surrounded by six small creatures, each hanging by its tail. The centaur followed the slave, Max saw him stroke each animal and press a spot on its neck. In each case the entire body of the little animal lit up, began to shine like a firefly with soft silvery light.

The clearing was softly illuminated thereby--well enough, Max thought, to read large print. One of the hobgoblins balloons came sailing silently between trees and anchored to a point thirty feet above them; it seemed to settle down for the night.

The centaur came over to Max and prodded him with a hoof, snorting inquiringly. Max listened carefully, then repeated the sound. The centaur answered and again Max mimicked. This useless exchange continued for a few phrases, then the centaur gave up and left, his train trotting after him.

Ellie shivered. "Phew!" she exclaimed, "I'm glad they're gone. I can stand the centaurs, a little, but those men ... ugh!"

He shared her disgust; they looked less human close up, having hair lines that started where their eyebrows should have been. They were so flat-headed that their ears stuck up above their skulls. But it was not this that had impressed Max. When the centaur had spoken to him Max had gotten his first good look into a centaur's mouth. Those teeth were never meant for munching grain, they were more like the teeth of a tiger--or a shark.

He decided not to mention this. "Say, wasn't that the same one that was leading the herd that caught us?"

"How would I know? They all look alike."

"But they don't, any more than two horses look alike."

"Horses all look alike."