Robert Heinlein - Red Planet

"Uh, yes, I guess so. You mean Willis can come home with me?"

"We will speak to the one you call Willis."

The old one spoke to Gekko, who stirred and muttered in his sleep. Then the three of them wound back up the ramps, with Gekko carrying Jim and the old one following a little behind.

They stopped in a chamber about halfway up to the surface. The room was dark when they reached it but it became illuminated as soon as the party entered. Jim saw that the place was lined, floor to ceiling, with little niches and each niche contained a bouncer, as similar, each to the other, as identical twins.

The little fellows raised their eye stalks when the light came on and peered interestedly around. From somewhere in the room came a shout of "Hi, Jim boy!"

Jim looked around but could not pick out the bouncer that had spoken. Before he could do anything about it the phrase had echoed around the room, "Hi, Jim boy! Hi, Jim boy! Hi, Jim boy!" each time in Jim's own voice, as borrowed by Willis.

Jim turned back to Gekko in bewilderment. "Which one is Willis?" he demanded, forgetting to speak in the dominant tongue.

The chorus started up again, "Which one is Willis? Which one is Willis? WhichWhichWhich one is Willis?"

Jim stepped out into the middle of the room. "Willis!" he commanded, "come to Jim."

Off to his right a bouncer popped out from a middle tier, landed on the floor, and waddled up to him. "Pick up Willis," it demanded. Gratefully, Jim did so.

"Where Jim boy been?" Willis wanted to know.

Jim scratched the bouncer. "You wouldn't understand if I told you. Look, Willis-Jim is about to go home. Does Willis want to go home with him?"

"Jim go?" Willis said doubtfully, as if the unrelenting echoing chorus had made it hard for him to undertsand.

"Jim go home, right away. Is Willis coming or is Willis going to stay here?"

"Jim go; Willis go," the bouncer announced, stating it as a law of nature.

"Okay, tell Gekko that."

"Why?" Willis asked suspiciously.

"Tell Gekko that, or you'll get left behind. Go on, tell him."

"Okay." Willis addressed Gekko in a series of clucks and croaks. Neither the old Martian nor Gekko made any comment; Gekko picked up the two smaller creatures and the procession continued on up toward the surface. Gekko put them down outside the room assigned to Frank and Jim. Jim carried Willis inside.

Frank looked up as they came in. He was sprawled on the silks and, arranged beside him on the floor, was a meal, as yet untouched. "Well, I see you found him," he commented. "It sure took you long enough."

Jim was suddenly overcome with remorse. He had been gone goodness knows how long. Days? Weeks? That movingpicture thing had covered months, in detail. "Gee, Frank, I'm sorry," he apologized. "Were you worried about me?"

"Worried? What for? I just didn't know whether or not to wait lunch on you. You must have been gone at least three hours."

Three hours? Jim started to object that it had been more like three weeks, then thought better of it. He recalled that he had not eaten while away, nor did he feel anything more than normally hungry.

"UhYeah, sure. Sony. Look, do you mind waiting lunch a bit longer?"

"Why? I'm starved."

"Because we're leaving, that's why. Gekko and another native are wailing to take us back to that town where K'boomch found us."

"WellOkay!" Frank stuffed his mouth full and started to pull on his outdoors suit.

Jim imitated him, both as to eating and dressing. "We can finish lunch in the subway dingus," he said, mumbling with his mouth full. "Don't forget to fill your mask reservoir."

"Don't worry. I won't pull that stunt twice." Frank filled his tank and Jim's, took a big drink of water, and offered the rest to Jim. Moments later they slung their skates over their shoulders and were ready to leave. The party filed through ramps and corridors to the "subway station" hall and stopped at one of the archways.

The old Martian went inside, but, somewhat to Jim's surprise, Gekko bade them good-bye. They parted with ritualistic exchange of courtesies appropriate to water friends, then Frank and Jim, with Willis, went inside and the door closed behind them.

The car started up at once. Frank said, "Wups! What is this?" and sat down suddenly. The old Martian, secure on the resting frame, said nothing. Jim laughed.

"Don't you remember the last ride?"

"Not very well. Say, I feel heavy."

"So do I. That's part of the ride. Now how about a bite to eat? It may be a long time before we get another decent meal."

"You ain't whistlin'." Frank got out the remainder of their lunch. When they had finished Frank thought about it and opened another can. Before they had had a chance to eat its contents-cold baked beans and surrogate pork-his stomach suddenly did a flip-flop. "Hey!" he yelped. "What's happened?"

"Nothing. It was like that last time."

"I thought we had plowed into something."

"Nope, it's all right, I tell you. Hand me over some of those beans." They ate the beans and waited; after a time the feeling of extra weight left them and Jim knew that they had arrived.

The door of the car compartment opened and they stepped out into a circular hall exactly like the one they had left. Frank looked around in disappointment. "Say, Jim-we haven't gone anyplace. There's some mistake."

"No, there's not." He turned, intending to speak to the old Martian, but the archway door behind them was already closed. "Oh, that's too bad," he said.

"What's too bad? That they gave us a run-around?"

"They didn't give us a run-around; it's just that this room looks like the one back in Cynia. You'll see when we get up to the surface. No, I was saying 'too bad' because I let-" Jim hesitated, realizing that he had never gotten the old Martian's name. "-because I let the old fellow, not Gekko, the other one, get away without saying good-bye."

"Who?"

"You know, the other one. The one that rode with us."

"What do you mean, the other one? I didn't see anybody but Gekko. And nobody rode with us; we were in there by ourselves."

"Huh? You must be blind."

"You must be nuts."

"Frank Sutton, do you mean to stand there and tell me you didn't see the Martian that rode with us?"

"You heard me the first time."

Jim took a deep breath. "Well, all I've got to say is: if you hadn't had your face buried in your food the whole time and had looked around you occasionally, you'd see more. How in-"

"Forget it, forget it," Frank interrupted, "before you get me sore. There were six Martians, if you like it that way. Let's get on up and outside and see what the score is. We're wasting time."

"Well, all right." They started up the ramps. Jim was very silent; the incident bothered him more than it did Frank.

Partway up they were forced to adjust their masks. Ten minutes or so thereafter they reached a room into which the sunlight came flooding; they hurried through it and outdoors.

A moment later it was Frank's turn to be puzzled and uncertain. "Jim, I know I was light-headed at the time but wasn't, uh-wasn't that town we started from just a onetower burg?"

"It was."

"This one isn't."

"No, it isn't."

"We're lost."

"That's right."

Politics

TTffiy WERE IN a large enclosed courtyard, such as characterizes many Martian buildings. They could make out the tops of the towers of the city, or some of them, but their view was much restricted.

"What do you think we ought to do?" asked Frank.

"Mmm... try to find a native and see if we can find out where we've landed. I wish I hadn't let the old fellow get away from us," Jim added. "He spoke Basic."

"You still harping on that?" said Frank. "Anyway I don't think our chances are good; this place looks utterly deserted. You know what I think? I think they've just dumped us."