The Lani People Read online

  CHAPTER X

  There is a special providence that looks over recent veterinarygraduates, Kennon reflected as he checked the monthly reports from theStations. Since the time he had laid down the law to Judson and Blalok,he had had no trouble from the production staff. And for the past fourmonths there had been no further trouble with Hepatodirus. That unwantedvisitor had apparently been evicted. At that, they had been lucky. Theparasite had been concentrated at Hillside Station and had failed toestablish itself in the training area. The intermediate host, it hadturned out, was a small amphibian that was susceptible to commercialinsecticide. It had been no trouble to eradicate. Systemic treatment andcooking of all food had cleaned up the infective cercaria and individualinfections, and after six months of intensive search, quarantine, andinvestigation, Kennon was morally certain that the disease had beeneradicated. The last four reports confirmed his belief.

  He sighed as he leaned back in his chair. Blalok was at last convincedthat his ideas were right. The hospital was operating as a hospitalshould, with a staff of twelve Lani kept busy checking the full wards.Actually, it was working better than it should, since stationmasters allover the island were now shipping in sick animals rather than treatingthem or requesting outpatient service.

  "Hi, Doc," Blalok said as he pushed the door open and looked into theoffice. "You doing anything?"

  "Not at the moment," Kennon said. "Something troubling you?"

  "No--just thought I'd drop in for a moment and congratulate you."

  "For what?"

  "For surviving the first year."

  "That won't be for two months yet."

  Blalok shook his head. "This is Kardon," he said. "There's only threehundred and two days in our year, ten thirty-day months and two specialdays at the year's end."

  Kennon shrugged. "My contract is Galactic Standard. I still have twomonths to go. But how come the ten-month year? Most other planets havetwelve, regardless of the number of days."

  "Old Alexander liked thirty-day months."

  "I've wondered about that."

  "You'll find a lot more peculiar things about Flora when you get to knowher better. This year has just been a breaking-in period."

  Kennon chuckled. "It's damn near broken me," he admitted. "You know, Ithought that the Lani'd be my principal practice when I came here."

  "You didn't figure that right. They're the easiest part. They'reintelligent and co-operative."

  "Which is more than one can say about the others." Kennon wiped thesweat from his face. "What with this infernal heat and their eternalstubbornness, I've nearly been driven crazy."

  "You shouldn't have laid out that vaccination program."

  "I had to. Your hog business was living mostly on luck, and the sheepand shrakes were almost as bad. You can't get away from soil saprophytesno matter how clean you are. Under a pasture setup there's alwaysa chance of contamination. And that old cliche about an ounce ofprevention is truer of livestock raising than anything else I can thinkof."

  "I have some more good news for you," Blalok said. "That's why I cameover. We're going to have another species to treat and vaccinate."

  Kennon groaned. "Now what?"

  "Poultry." Blalok's voice was disgusted. "Personally I think it's amess, but Alexander thinks it's profitable. Someone's told him thatpound for pound chickens are the most efficient feed converters of allthe domestic animals. So we're getting a pilot plant: eggs, incubator,and a knocked-down broiler battery so we can try the idea out.The Boss-man is always hot on new ideas to increase efficiency andproduction. The only trouble is that he fails to consider the workinvolved in setting up another operation."

  "You're so right. I'll have to brush up on pullorum, ornithosis,coccidosis, leukosis, perosis, and Ochsner knows how many other-osisesand--itises. I was never too strong on fowl practice in school, and I'dbe happier if I never had anything to do with them."

  "So would I," Blalok agreed. "I can't see anything in this but trouble."

  Kennon nodded.

  "And he's forgotten something else," Blalok added. "Poultry needconcentrated feed. We're going to have to install a feed mill."

  Kennon chuckled. "I hope he'll appreciate the bill he gets."

  "He thinks we can use local labor," Blalok said gloomily. "I wish he'drealize that Lani are technological morons."

  "They could learn."

  "I suppose so--but it isn't easy. And besides, Allworth is the only manwith feed-mill experience, and he's up to his ears with Hillside Stationsince that expansion order came in."

  "I never did get the reason for that. After we complained about theslavery implications and got the Boss-man's okay to hold the line, whydo we need more Lani?"

  "Didn't you know? His sister's finally decided to try marriage. Foundherself some overmuscled Halsite who looked good to her--but shecouldn't crack his moral barrier." Blalok grinned. "I thought you'd bethe first to know. Wasn't she interested in you?"

  Kennon chuckled. "You could call it that. Interested--like the way adog's interested in a beefsteak. It's a good thing we had that flukeproblem or I'd have been chewed up and digested long ago. That womanfrightens me."

  "I could be scared by uglier things," Blalok said. "With the Boss-man'ssister on my side I wouldn't worry."

  "What makes you think she'd be on my side? She's a cannibal."

  "Well, you know her better than I do."

  He did--he certainly did. That first month had been one of the worst hehad ever spent, Kennon reflected. Between Eloise and the flukes, he hadnearly collapsed--and when it had come to the final showdown, he thoughtfor a while that he'd be looking for another job. But Alexander had beenmore than passably understanding and had refused his sister's passionatepleas for a Betan scalp. He owed a debt of gratitude to the Boss-man.

  "You're lucky you never knew her," Kennon said.

  "That all depends on what you mean," Blalok said as he grinned andwalked to the door. The parting shot missed its mark entirely as Kennonlooked at him with blank incomprehension. "You should have been aMystic," Blalok said. "A knowledge of the sacred books would do you noend of good." And with that cryptic remark the superintendent vanished.

  "That had all the elements of a snide remark," Kennon murmured tohimself, "but my education's been neglected somewhere along the line. Idon't get it." He shrugged and buzzed for Copper. The veterinary reportwould have to be added to the pile already before him, and the Boss-manliked to have his reports on time.

  Copper watched Kennon as he dictated the covering letter, her slimfingers dancing over the stenotype. He had been here a full year--butinstead of becoming a familiar object, he had grown so gigantic thathe filled her world. And it wasn't merely because he was young andbeautiful. He was kind, too.

  Yet she couldn't approach him, and she wanted to so desperately thatit was a physical pain. Other Lani had told her about men and what theycould do. Even her old preceptress at Hillside Station had given hersome advice when Man Allworth had tattooed the tiny V on her thigh thatmeant she had been selected for the veterinary staff. And when Old Dochad brought her from the Training Station to the hospital and removedher tail, she was certain that she was one of the lucky ones who wouldknow love.

  But love wasn't a pain in the chest, an ache in the belly and thighs, anunfulfilled longing that destroyed sleep and made food tasteless. Lovewas supposed to be pleasant and exciting. She could remember every wordher preceptress had spoken.

  "My little one," the old Lani had said, "you now wear the doctor's mark.And soon no one will be able to tell you from a human. You will looklike our masters. You will share in their work. And there may be timeswhen you will find favor in their eyes. Then you may learn of love.

  "Love," the old voice was soft in Copper's ears. "The word is almost astranger to us now, known only to the few who serve our masters. It wasnot always so. The Old Ones knew love before Man Alexander came. Andour young were the fruit of love rather than the product of our masters'cunning. But you may know t
he flower even though you cannot bear itsfruit. You may enter that world of pleasure-pain the Old Ones knew, thatworld which is now denied us.

  "But remember always that you are a Lani. A man may be kind to you. Hemay treat you gently. He may show you love. Yet you never will be hisequal. Nor must you become too attached to him, for you are not human.You are not his natural mate. You cannot bear his young. You cannotcompletely share. You can only accept.

  "So if love should come to you, take it and enjoy it, but do not try topossess it. For there lies heartache rather than happiness. And it isa world of heartache, my little one, to long for something which youcannot have."

  To long for something which one cannot have! Copper knew that feeling.It had been with her ever since Kennon had come into her life thatnight a year ago. And it had grown until it had become gigantic. Hewas kind--yes. He was harsh--occasionally. Yet he had shown her no moreaffection than he would have shown a dog. Less--for he would have petteda dog and he did not touch her.

  He laughed, but she was not a part of his laughter. He needed her, butthe need was that of a builder for a tool. He liked her and sometimesshared his problems and triumphs with her, and sometimes his defeats,but he did not love. There had never been for her the bright fierce lookhe had bent upon the Woman Eloise those times when she had come to him,the look men gave to those who found favor in their eyes.

  Had he looked at her but once with that expression she would have cometo him though fire barred the way. The Woman Eloise was a fool.

  Copper looked at him across the corner of the desk, the yellow hair, thebronze skin, firm chin, soft lips and long straight nose, thenarrowed eyes, hooded beneath thick brows, scanning the papers in hislean-tendoned hands. His nearness was an ache in her body--yet he wasfar away.

  She thought of how his hands would feel upon her. He had touched heronce, and that touch had burned like hot iron. For hours she had feltit. He looked up. Her heart choked her with its beating. She would diefor him if he would but once run his fingers over her tingling skin, andstroke her hair.

  The naked emotion in Copper's face was readable enough, Kennon thought.One didn't need Sorovkin techniques to interpret what was in her mind.And it would have been amusing if it weren't so sad. For what shewanted, he couldn't give. Yet if she were human it would be easy. Ahundred generations of Betan moral code said "never," yet when he lookedat her their voices faded. He was a man--a member of the ruling race.She was an animal--a beast--a humanoid--near human but not near enough.To like her was easy--but to love her was impossible. It would bebestiality. Yet his body, less discerning than his mind, responded toher nearness.

  He sighed. It was a pleasant unpleasantness, a mixed emotion he couldnot analyze. In a way it was poetry--the fierce, vaguely disquietingpoetry of the sensual Santosian bards--the lyrics that sung of the joysof flesh. He had never really liked them, yet they filled him with avague longing, an odd uneasiness--just the sort that filled him now.There was a deadly parallel here. He sighed.

  "Yes, sir? Do you want something?" Copper asked.

  "I could use a cup of coffee," he said. "These reports are getting medown." The banality amused him--sitting here thinking of Copper andtalking about coffee. Banality was at once the curse and the savinggrace of mankind. It kept men from the emotional peaks and valleys thatcould destroy them. He chuckled shakily. The only alternative would beto get rid of her--and he couldn't (or wouldn't?--the question intrudedslyly) do that.

  Copper returned with a steaming cup which she set before him. Truly,this coffee was a man's drink. She had tried it once but the hotbitterness scalded her mouth and flooded her body with its heat. And shehad felt so lightheaded. Not like herself at all. It wasn't a drink forLani. Of that she was certain.

  Yet he enjoyed it. He looked at her and smiled. He was pleased withher. Perhaps--yet--she might find favor in his eyes. The hope was alwaysthere within her--a hope that was at once fear and prayer. And if shedid--she would know what to do.

  Kennon looked up. Copper's face was convulsed with a bright mixture ofhope and pain. Never, he swore, had he saw anything more beautiful orsad. Involuntarily he placed his hand upon her arm. She flinched, hermuscles tensing under his finger tips. It was though his fingers carrieda galvanic current that backlashed up his arm even as it stiffened hers.

  "What's the matter, Copper?" he asked softly.

  "Nothing, Doctor. I'm just upset."

  "Why?"

  There it was again, the calm friendly curiosity that was worse than abath in ice water. Her heart sank. She shivered. She would never findher desire here. He was cold--cold--cold! He wouldn't see. He didn'tcare. All right--so that was how it had to be. But first she would tellhim. Then he could do with her as he wished. "I hoped--for the past yearthat you would see me. That you would think of me not as a Lani, but asa beloved." The words came faster now, tumbling over one another. "Thatyou would desire me and take me to those worlds we cannot know unlessyou humans show us. I have hoped so much, but I suppose it's wrong--foryou--you are so very human, and I--well, I'm not!" The last three wordsheld all the sadness and the longing of mankind aspiring to be God.

  "My dear--my poor child," Kennon murmured.

  She looked at him, but her eyes could not focus on his face, for hishands were on her shoulders and the nearness of him drove the breathfrom her body. From a distance she heard a hard tight voice that was herown. "Oh, sir--oh please, sir!"

  The hands withdrew, leaving emptiness--but her heartbeat slowed and thepink haze cleared and she could see his face.

  And with a surge of terror and triumph she realized what she saw! Thathard bright look that encompassed and possessed her! The curved lipsdrawn over white, white teeth! The flared nostrils! The hungry demandupon his face that answered the demand in her heart! And she knew--atlast--with a knowledge that turned her limbs to water, that she hadfound favor in his eyes!