Authors: James White
Martin bypassed the translator momentarily to say, "The local constabulary, do you think? I can't react until they come into sight, when it would be natural for me to ask who and what they are. But our friend here worries me with its constant harping on ownership. And what does it mean by hearsay? I can't give it a straight answer until I know why it thinks the question is so important."
He cut in the translator and went on to explain the relationship between Beth and himself. He was nonspecific regarding the division of their work, but he had to go into considerable detail on Earth-human social anthropology, cultural mores, and reproduction. But suddenly the Teldin was holding up two of its four hands.
"Thank you once again for this interesting hearsay," it said slowly, as if uncertain that the true meaning of the words was getting through to Martin. "You are answering questions which have not been asked, and not answering those which must be asked."
The brown and yellow tricycle came into sight just then. Martin said quickly, "The vehicle which approaches us at speed and flying a flag, and the beings propelling it. Is their mission important?"
The Teldin glanced at it in a manner suggesting impatience. "It flies the pennant of the Master of Sea and Landborne Communications. Their mission has nothing to do with us and is of no importance compared with the visit of an off-planet being who avoids answering the most important question about itself..."
"Just a couple of mailmen," Beth said in a relieved voice.
"... Your status is not clear," the Teldin went on. "Do you or your life-mate own the vessels which brought you here?"
"My status"... Martin thought. A little light was beginning to dawn. Aloud, he said, "The vessels are not our personal property, but we are responsible for their operation."
"But they are owned, presumably, by someone who directs you in their use?" the Teldin said quickly, and added, "You must obey this being's directions?"
"Yes," Martin said.
The Teldin made a loud, gurgling sound which did not translate, then it said, "You are a slave, Martin. Highly placed, no doubt, considering the nature of the equipment you are allowed to use, but still a slave..."
Instinctively Martin stepped back as one of the being's enormous hands swung toward him. But it stopped a few inches from his chin with one digit pointing at the Federation symbol on his collar.
"... Is that the emblem of your Master?"
His first thought was to strenuously deny that he was any kind of slave, and his second was to wonder what new complication would be the result of that denial. But the Federation was, in real terms, his master, as it was the master of all of its non-Citizens.
"Yes," he said again.
The Teldin turned its hand, which was still only a few inches from Martin's face, to display a bracelet on its thick, furry wrist. The bracelet supported a flat oval of metal on which an intricate design had been worked in several colors.
"Like mine," the Teldin said, "your mark of ownership is small, tasteful, inconspicuous as bents a slave in a position of trust and responsibility. But why did you ignore or evade the questions which would quickly have established your status?"
"I was unsure of your own status," Martin replied truthfully.
He remembered their tutor telling them again and again that in an alien contact situation they must always tell the truth, although not necessarily all of it at once. Measured doses of the truth gave rise to much fewer complications than well-meant diplomatic lies.
"I don't like what I'm hearing," Beth said. "The Federation does not approve of slavery or any form of-"
"Now I understand," the Teldin said before she could go on. "You thought I might be a Master and were being circumspect. Like the other passers by, I thought you were a Master and could not, therefore, speak first. But contact between ourselves and an other-world species would seem to be a project too important to be entrusted to a slave, regardless of its level of ability. My position forbids me saying anything which is directly critical of your Master, or any Master, but it seems to me that it would be more fitting if-if..."
"My Master did the work itself?" Martin asked.
"That was my thought exactly," the Teldin said.
Martin thought about their tutor and its enormous, sprawling body, and of the sheer size and complexity of any mobile life-support system capable of accommodating it, and he thought of that species' immense lifespan. Carefully, and truthfully, he said, "My remarks should not be considered in any way critical or disloyal, but my Master is grossly overweight, very old, and has other projects demanding of its time and available energy."
"Since we are speaking face to face I can accept this information as factual until I have been instructed otherwise by my Master," the Teldin said, and the sudden change in its manner was unmistakable. It added, "But my Master will not accept anything you say."
"For this reason," Martin persisted, "I have been instructed to land on this world and gather information about your species and its culture so that my Master will know whom to approach with the initial offers of friendship and exchanges of knowledge."
"Your Master seems lacking in sensitivity and intelligence," the Teldin said, this time without any apology.
"Your Master might just as well have sent a radio transmitting and receiving device."
"That has already been tried," Martin said, "without success."
"Naturally," the Teldin said.
The situation had gone sour, there could be no doubt about that. The impression given by the Teldin was that it belonged to an intensely status-conscious slave culture in which the Masters spoke only to other Masters or to God, and when a Master spoke to a slave, the slave had to believe everything it was told and, presumably, disbelieve everything it had been told earlier by a lowlier being.
This is crazy, thought Martin. "What would have been your reaction if I'd been a Master?"
"Had you been a Master," the Teldin replied, "I would not have been able to give you any information until it had been vetted for content and accuracy by my own or another Master. Knowledge which is not passed down from a Master is, as you know, untrustworthy. The only assistance I could have given you would have been to arrange a meeting with another Master. Had you been a Master we could not have exchanged hearsay as freely as we have been doing."
"May this exchange continue?" Martin asked eagerly. "I have many questions. And answers."
"Yes, Martin," the Teldin said. "It may continue until I have reported your presence and everything that has transpired between us to my Master, who will assess the value of the material and instruct me accordingly.
"My curiosity is such that I am in no great hurry to make my report," the being added. "And my name is Skorta."
"Thank you, Skorta," Martin said, relieved. The atmosphere seemed friendly once more, but he still needed clarification on the Master-slave relationship. He said, "Will you make your report in person, and where?"
"Careful," Beth warned.
"Thankfully, no," Skorta said. "I must make a hearsay report by radio. The device is in my Master's education complex in the city."
"Are you a teacher!"
Martin could hardly believe his luck. It would not matter which subject Skorta taught, because it was sure to have a grounding in many subjects, and it was quite probable that the Teldin would be able to furnish them with all of the information necessary for the completion of their assignment, possibly within a few hours.
"Properly speaking, only a Master can teach," it replied. "That is the law, I relay the approved information, suitably simplified for the age-groups concerned, to unruly little beings who only rarely think of questioning the validity of the information they receive. Even the words of a Master, as you know, may be doubted when they have been passed down through too many slaves."
"I should like to see your students," Martin said, "and other people in the city. Would I be able to meet a Master?..."
Martin felt like biting off his tongue. Without thinking he had blundered into that highly sensitive area again, and he could almost feel the atmosphere congeal. The Teldin made a soft, untranslatable sound which might have been a sigh.
"Stranger," it said slowly, "your presence here is an insult and an affront to our Masters, since it is plain that your own Master thinks so little of this world and its people that it sent a slave to us as an emissary. To my knowledge there has never been a greater insult, and I cannot even guess at what the Masters reaction will be.
"But I am willing to take you to the city," Skorta went on. "In fact, I am anxious to do so in order to prolong this contact with you, and to discover as much about your people and their civilization as I can before I am required officially to forget it. But I must warn you that the visit to the city could place you in great personal danger."
"From the slaves or the Masters?" Martin asked. He was beginning to like this visually ferocious, four-armed nightmare that was glaring down at him. He could be certain of very little in the present situation, but he was sure that this being was honest and had a measure of concern for his safety.
"The slaves may restrain you if instructed to do so by the Masters," the Teldin replied slowly, "but only the Masters bear weapons and only they may kill. Now, if you will climb into my carrier I shall transport you to the city."
"Don't go," Beth said, and gave reasons.
"I have received information," Martin said when she had finished talking, "that very shortly meteorite activity will increase in this area by a factor of three. I cannot be more specific because of ignorance regarding your units of time. According to the instruments in the orbiting vessel-"
"This is hearsay," Skorta broke in.
"True," Martin said quickly. "But the instruments are being read by my life-mate who is, naturally, anxious that no harm befalls me."
"Then I understand why you attach so much importance to this information," the Teldin said, "but I cannot. It comes through a device of your life-mate, through another device to you and then to myself. There are too many possibilities for cumulative error between the fact and the reported fact for me to accept this information as other than hearsay.
"Since you believe that the Scourge from the sky will be heavier soon," Skorta went on, "do you wish to return to the safety of your vessel now?"
In his other ear Beth was saying much the same thing in more forthright language, adding that there would be another time and another Teldin to talk to. But Martin wanted to go on talking to this one, and the intensity of the feeling surprised him.
"If I returned to my vessel," he said, choosing his words with care, "I could leave you a device which would enable us to continue our conversation. But this would be unsatisfactory for two reasons. I would not be able to visit your city, and you would consider any such conversation as untrustworthy hearsay. If, however, you can assure me from your own personal experience that this road is adequately protected, I would go with you to the city and continue to converse with you face to face."
The Teldin exhaled loudly and said, "Stranger, at last you are thinking like a Teldin." Martin boarded the tricycle and the Teldin began to pedal. Soon the protective wall was slipping past at a respectable rate of speed. Without taking its attention from the road, Skorta added, "I can also assure you that you can speak to me face to face while addressing the back of my neck."
ON only two occasions did the Teldin move briefly to the unprotected side of the road to let oncoming vehicles through on the inside. Right of way, it seemed, depended on the pennant flying on the approaching vehicle and on the size and position of the ownership badges being worn by the occupants.
A flag and distinctively colored vehicle driven by a Teldin wearing a large emblem on a shoulder sash indicated that it was a slave of the lower order, a public utility worker or such. Badges worn on armbands signified a much higher grade of slave, and emblems worn on the wrist indicated a person in the highest level of the hierarchy of Teldin slavehood.