The Lani People Read online

  CHAPTER VII

  Kennon stopped at Blalok's house long enough to tell the superintendentwhat was causing the trouble. Blalok scowled. "We've never had flukeshere before," he said. "Why should they appear now?"

  "They've been introduced," Kennon said. "The thing that bothers me ishow Dr. Williamson missed them."

  "The old man was senile," Blalok said. "He was nearly blind the last sixmonths of his life. I wouldn't doubt that he let his assistants do mostof his work, and they could have missed them."

  "Possibly, but the lesions are easy to see. At any rate, the culprit isknown now."

  "Culprit?"

  "Hepatodirus hominis--the human liver fluke. He's a tricky littlefellow--travels almost as far as men do."

  "I'm glad it's your problem, not mine. All I can remember about flukesis that they're hard to eradicate."

  "Particularly H. hominis."

  "You can tell me about it later. Right now Mr. Alexander's over atOld--your house. Probably he's looking for you."

  "Where's Jordan?"

  "He went up to Station Fourteen. We'll see him tomorrow."

  "I'll say good night then," Kennon said.

  "I'm glad you're here. It's a load off my shoulders. See you tomorrow."Blalok waved a friendly good night and left the lights on long enoughfor Kennon to make his way to his quarters.

  Alexander was seated in a heavily upholstered chair listening to a tapedsymphony in the stereo, his eyes half closed, an expression of peaceon his face. An elderly Lani stood beside him. It was a comfortablepicture.

  The humanoid saw Kennon and gasped, a tiny indrawn sound of surprise.Alexander's eyes snapped open. "Oh--it's you," he said. "Don't worry,Kara--it's your new doctor."

  Kara smiled. "You startled me," she said. "I was dreaming."

  "On your feet?" Alexander interjected idly.

  "I should have known you at once, Doctor. There's talk about you allover the yards, ever since you arrived."

  "They know what is going on around here better than any of us,"Alexander chuckled. "The grapevine is amazingly efficient. Well--what'sthe story?"

  "Liver fluke."

  "Hmm--not good."

  "I think it can be stopped. I looked at the records. It doesn't seem tohave been here too long."

  "I hope you're right. How long will it take?"

  "Several months, maybe a year, maybe more. I can't say. But I'll try toclean it up as quickly as possible. I'm pretty sure of the fluke, andit's a hard one to control."

  "Hepatodirus?"

  Kennon nodded.

  "That's an offworld parasite, isn't it?"

  "Yes. It originated on Santos. Parasitized the Varl originally, butliked humans better. It's adapted to a hundred different planetaryenvironments, and it keeps spreading. It's a real cutie--almostintelligent the way it behaves. But it can be licked."

  "Good--get on it right away."

  "I'm starting tomorrow."

  "Fine--I thought you'd be the right man. Kara! Fix the doctor a drink.We might as well have a nightcap--then I'll go back to the house andlisten to Henry and Anne's screams about poor mistreated Douglas, andthen back to Albertsville tomorrow. Duty and the credits call."

  With mild surprise, Kennon realized that Alexander was drunk. Notobnoxiously, but enough to change his character. Intoxicated, he was afriendlier person. If there was any truth in the ancient clicheabout alcohol bringing out a man's true character, then Alexander wasbasically a very nice person indeed.

  "Well--here's your home for the next five years," Alexander said. "Eightrooms, two baths, a freshener, and three Lani to keep the place running.You've got it made."

  "Perhaps--we'll see when we tackle this fluke infestation. Personally, Idon't think I'm going to have an easy time. Tomorrow I'm going to be upto my neck in trouble trying to save your profits."

  "You'll do it. I have confidence in you."

  "I still think you should have hired a medic."

  "This isn't all of your job," Alexander said. "And besides I can'tafford to do it. Oh--not the money, but it might be admitting that theLani might be human. And we've gone to a great deal of trouble to provethey're not." He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "There's a storybehind this."

  "I wouldn't doubt it."

  "Maybe it'd be better if I told it. It goes back over four centuries.Grandfather was a clever man. After he had secured this island hebecame worried about the surviving Lani. He didn't want to be accusedof genocide, since the Lani were so human in appearance. So he had hismedical officer make a few autopsies. The M.D. reported that while therewas similarity, the Lani were probably not human.

  "That was enough for Grandfather. He requested a Court of Inquiry. Thecourt was sitting in Halsey and the hearing was private. Even so, itleaked and Grandfather was highly unpopular for a time until the labreports came in. It cost him over eight hundred Ems and nearly twoyears' time to finish the case, but when it was over the Lani weredeclared alien, and Grandfather had ironclad discovery rights.

  "They really put him through the mill. Grandfather furnished the bodiesand three court-appointed M.O.'s went through them with microscopes.They didn't miss a thing. Their reports are so detailed that they'reclassics of their kind. They're almost required reading for anyonewho wants to learn Lani structure and function. The court renderedan interim decision that the Lani were nonhuman, and armed with this,Grandfather prepared the final tests which were run by a team ofcourt-appointed medics and biologists, who made in vitro and live testson a number of Lani female prisoners. The tests ran for over two yearsand were totally negative. So the Alexander family acquired Flora andthe Otpens, and a legal status." Alexander stood up. "Well--that's acapsule summary. The records are in the library if you'd care to checkthem."

  "Why?"

  "Just to prove we're honest." He moved carefully toward the door, openedit, and disappeared into the night.

  Silently Kennon watched him descend the porch steps. He seemed steadyenough. For a moment Kennon debated whether he should see him home--andthen decided against it. If Alexander needed help he'd have asked forit. As it was, it was better to leave things alone. Certainly he didn'tknow Alexander well enough to act as a guardian. He turned back to theliving area. The stereo was playing something soft and nostalgic asKennon sank into the chair Alexander had vacated. He let his body relax.It had been as full a day as he had ever spent filled with changesso abrupt that they were exhausting. He felt confused. There were noprecedents he could apply. Neither his studies nor his travels hadprepared him for living in a situation like this.

  Legally and biologically the Lani weren't human. But they wereintelligent, upright, bipedal mammals whose morphology was so close toman's that it had taken the ultimate test to settle their status. Andbeing a Betan, Kennon was suspicious of the accuracy of that ultimatetest.

  But the Brotherhood of Man was based upon it. The feeling of unity thatpervaded mankind's expanding empire was its product. From almost thebeginning of mankind's leap to the stars it had been recognized that menmust help each other or perish. The spirit of co-operation against thecommon enmity of alien worlds and cultures transcended the old pettyrivalries on Earth. Men--all men--were brothers in arms.

  And so the Brotherhood was born--and the concept born of necessitydeveloped its muscles in a thousand battles on a thousand hostileworlds. And ultimately it evolved into the only form of centralauthority that men would accept. Yet basically it was not a government.It was an attitude of mind. Men accepted its decisions as they wouldaccept the rulings of a family council, and for the same reasons.

  The Brotherhood laid down certain rules but it did not attempt toenforce them. After all, it didn't need to. It also arbitrated disputes,admitted new worlds to membership, and organized concerted human effortagainst dangerous enemies. And that was all. Yet in its sphere theauthority of the Brotherhood was absolute.

  There was only one criterion for membership in theBrotherhood--membership in the human race. No matter how decadent orprimitive
a population might be, if it was human it was automaticallyeligible for Brotherhood--a free and equal partner in the society ofhuman worlds.

  Kennon doubted that any nonhuman race had ever entered the select circleof humanity, although individuals might have done so. A docked Lani, forinstance, would probably pass unquestioned as a human, but the Lani racewould not. In consequence they and their world were fair prey, and hadbeen attacked and subjugated.

  Of course, proof of inhumanity was seldom a problem. Most alien lifeforms were obviously alien. But there were a few--like the Lani--wheresimilarities were so close that it was impossible to determine theirstatus on the basis of morphology alone. And so the Humanity Test hadcome into being.

  Essentially it was based upon species compatibility--on the concept thatlike can interbreed with like. Tests conducted on every inhabited worldin the Brotherhood had proven this conclusively. Whatever changes hadtaken place in the somatic characteristics of mankind since the Exodus,they had not altered the compatibility of human germ plasm. Man couldinterbreed with man--aliens could not. The test was simple. The resultswere observable. And what was more important, everyone could understandit. No definition of humanity could be more simple or direct.

  But was it accurate?

  Like other Betans, Kennon wondered. It was--so far--probably. Thequalifying phrases were those of the scientist, that strange breed thatrefuses to accept anything as an established fact until it is provenbeyond a shadow of a doubt. After all, the human race had beenspaceborne for only six thousand years--scarcely time for any realdifferences to develop. But physical changes had already appeared--andit would only be a question of time before these would probably befollowed by genetic changes. And in some groups the changes might beextensive enough to make them genetic strangers to the rest of humanity.

  What would happen then? No one knew. Actually no one bothered to thinkabout it except for a few far-seeing men who worried as they saw.

  Probably.

  Might.

  Possibly.

  If.

  Four words. But because of them the Betans were slowly withdrawing fromthe rest of humanity. Already the radiations of Beta's variant-G sun hadproduced changes in the population. Little things like tougherepidermis and depilation of body hair--little things that held alarmingimplications to Beta's scientists, and to Beta's people. Not too manygenerations hence a Betan outside his home system would be a rarity,and in a few millennia the Betan system itself would be a closed enclavepeopled by humans who had deviated too far from the basic stock tomingle with it in safety.

  Of course, the Brotherhood itself might be changed by that time, butthere was no assurance that this would happen. And mankind had a historyof dealing harshly with its mutants. So Beta would play it safe.

  Kennon wondered if there were other worlds in the Brotherhood that hadcome to the same conclusion. Possibly there were. And possibly therewere worlds where marked deviations had occurred. There wasn't a yearthat passed that didn't bring some new human world into the Brotherhood,and many of these had developed from that cultural explosion during theFirst Millennium known as the Exodus, where small groups of colonists ininadequate ships set out for unannounced goals to homestead new worldsfor man. Some of these survived, and many were being discovered evenat this late date. But so far none had any difficulty in proving theirhuman origin.

  The Lani, conceivably, could have been descendants of one of thesegroups, which probably explained the extreme care the Brotherhoodcourts had taken with their case. But they had failed the test, andwere declared animals. Yet it was possible that they had mutated beyondgenetic compatibility. If they had, and if it were proved, here was atest case that could rock the galaxy--that could shake the Brotherhoodto its very foundations--that could force a re-evaluation of thecriteria of humanity.

  Kennon grinned. He was a fine employee. Here he was, less than a fullday on the job, dreaming how he could ruin his employer, shake thefoundation of human civilization, and force ten thousand billion humansto change their comfortable habit patterns and their belief in theunchangeable sameness of men. He was, he reflected wryly, an incurableromantic.