Adaptation Read online

  II.

  Specialist Joseph Chessman stood stolidly before a viewing screen.Theoretically he was on watch. Actually his eyes were unseeing, therewas nothing to see. The star pattern changed so slowly as to be all butpermanent.

  Not that every other task on board was not similar. One man could havetaken the _Pedagogue_ from the Solar System to Rigel, just as easily asits sixteen-hand crew was doing. Automation at its ultimate, not eventhe steward department had tasks adequately to fill the hours.

  He had got beyond the point of yawning, his mind was a blank duringthese hours of duty. He was a stolid, bear of a man, short and massiveof build.

  A voice behind him said, "Second watch reporting. Request permission totake over the bridge."

  Chessman turned and it took a brief moment for the blankness in his eyesto fade into life. "Hello Kennedy, you on already? Seems like I just gothere." He muttered in self-contradiction, "Or that I've been here amonth."

  Technician Jerome Kennedy grinned. "Of course, if you want to stay ..."

  Chessman said glumly, "What difference does it make where you are? Whatare they doing in the lounge?"

  Kennedy looked at the screen, not expecting to see anything andaccomplishing just that. "Still on their marathon argument."

  Joe Chessman grunted.

  Just to be saying something, Kennedy said, "How do you stand in the bigdebate?"

  "I don't know. I suppose I favor Plekhanov. How we're going to take abunch of savages and teach them modern agriculture and industrialmethods in fifty years under democratic institutions, I don't know. Ican see them putting it to a vote when we suggest fertilizer might be agood idea." He didn't feel like continuing the conversation. "See youlater, Kennedy," and then, as an afterthought, formally, "Relinquishingthe watch to Third Officer."

  As he left the compartment, Jerry Kennedy called after him, "Hey, what'sthe course!"

  Chessman growled over his shoulder, "The same it was last month, and thesame it'll be next month." It wasn't much of a joke but it was the onlyone they had between themselves.

  In the ship's combination lounge and mess he drew a cup of coffee. JoeChessman, among whose specialties were propaganda and primitivepolitics, was third in line in the expedition's hierarchy. As such heparticipated in the endless controversy dealing with overall strategybut only as a junior member of the firm. Amschel Mayer and LeonidPlekhanov were the center of the fracas and right now were at it hot andheavy.

  Joe Chessman listened with only half interest. He settled into a chairon the opposite side of the lounge and sipped at his coffee. They weregoing over their old battlefields, assaulting ramparts they'd stormed athousand times over.

  Plekhanov was saying doggedly, "Any planned economy is more efficientthan any unplanned one. What could be more elementary than that? Howcould anyone in his right mind deny that?"

  And Mayer snapped, "_I_ deny it. That term _planned economy_ covers amultitude of sins. My dear Leonid, don't be an idiot ..."

  "I beg your pardon, sir!"

  "Oh, don't get into one of your huffs, Plekhanov."

  They were at that stage again.

  * * * * *

  Technician Natt Roberts entered, a book in hand, and sent the trend ofconversation in a new direction. He said, worriedly, "I've been studyingup on this and what we're confronted with is two different ethnicperiods, barbarism and feudalism. Handling them both at once doubles ourproblems."

  One of the junior specialists who'd been sitting to one side said, "I'vebeen thinking about that and I believe I've got an answer. Why not allof us concentrate on Texcoco? When we've brought them to the Genoalevel, which shouldn't take more than a decade or two, then we can startworking on the Genoese, too."

  Mayer snapped, "And by that time we'll have hardly more than half ourfifty years left to raise the two of them to an industrial technology.Don't be an idiot, Stevens."

  Stevens flushed his resentment.

  Plekhanov said slowly, "Besides, I'm not sure that, given the correctmethod, we cannot raise Texcoco to an industrialized society inapproximately the same time it will take to bring Genoa there."

  Mayer bleated a sarcastic laugh at that opinion.

  Natt Roberts tossed his book to the table and sank into a chair. "Ifonly one of them had maintained itself at a reasonable level ofdevelopment, we'd have had help in working with the other. As it is,there are only sixteen of us." He shook his head. "Why did the knowledgeheld by the original colonists melt away? How can an intelligent peoplelose such basics as the smelting of iron, gunpowder, the use of coal asa fuel?"

  Plekhanov was heavy with condescension. "Roberts, you seem to haveentered upon this expedition with a lack of background. Consider. Youput down a hundred colonists, products of the most advanced culture.Among these you have one or two who can possibly repair an I.B.M.machine, but is there one who can smelt iron, or even locate the ore? Wehave others who could design an automated textile factory, but do anyknow how to weave a blanket on a hand loom?

  "The first generation gets along well with the weapons and equipmentbrought with them from Earth. They maintain the old ways. The secondgeneration follows along but already ammunition for the weapons runsshort, the machinery imported from Earth needs parts. There is no localeconomy that can provide such things. The third generation begins tothink of Earth as a legend and the methods necessary to survive on thenew planet conflict with those the first settlers imported. By thefourth generation, Earth is no longer a legend but a fable ..."

  "But the books, the tapes, the films ..." Roberts injected.

  "Go with the guns, the vehicles and the other things brought from Earth.On a new planet there is no leisure class among the colonists. Eachworks hard if the group is to survive. There is no time to write newbooks, nor to copy the old, and the second and especially the thirdgeneration are impatient of the time needed to learn to read, time thatshould be spent in the fields or at the chase. The youth of anindustrial culture can spend twenty years and more achieving a basiceducation before assuming adult responsibilities but no pioneer societycan afford to allow its offspring to so waste its time."

  Natt Roberts was being stubborn. "But still, a few would carry the torchof knowledge."

  Plekhanov nodded ponderously. "For a while. But then comes the reactionagainst these nonconformists, these crackpots who, by spending time atbooks, fail to carry their share of the load. One day they wake up tofind themselves expelled from the group--if not knocked over the head."

  * * * * *

  Joe Chessman had been following Plekhanov's argument. He said dourly,"But finally the group conquers its environment to the point where aminimum of leisure is available again. Not for everybody, of course."

  Amschel Mayer bounced back into the discussion. "Enter the priest, enterthe war lord. Enter the smart operator who talks or fights himself intoa position where he's free from drudgery."

  Joe Chessman said reasonably, "If you don't have the man with leisure,society stagnates. Somebody has to have time off for thinking, if thewhole group is to advance."

  "Admittedly!" Mayer agreed. "I'd be the last to contend that an upperclass is necessarily parasitic."

  Plekhanov grumbled, "We're getting away from the subject. In spite ofMayer's poorly founded opinions, it is quite obvious that only acollectivized economy is going to enable these Rigel planets to achievean industrial culture in as short a period as half a century."

  Amschel Mayer reacted as might have been predicted. "Look here,Plekhanov, we have our own history to go by. Man made his greateststrides under a freely competitive system."

  "Well now ..." Chessman began.

  "Prove that!" Plekhanov insisted loudly. "Your so-called free economycountries such as England, France and the United States began theirindustrial revolution in the early part of the nineteenth century. Ittook them a hundred years to accomplish what the Soviets did in fifty,in the next century."

  "Just a _moment_,
now," Mayer simmered. "That's fine, but the Sovietswere able to profit by the pioneering the free countries did. Thescientific developments, the industrial techniques, were handed to heron a platter."

  Specialist Martin Gunther, thus far silent, put in his calm opinion."Actually, it seems to me the fastest industrialization comes under apaternal guidance from a more advanced culture. Take Japan. In 1854 shewas opened to trade by Commodore Perry. In 1871 she abolished feudalismand encouraged by her own government and utilizing the most advancedtechniques of a sympathetic West, she began to industrialize." Gunthersmiled wryly, "Soon to the dismay of the very countries that originallysponsored bringing her into the modern world. By 1894 she was able towage a successful war against China and by 1904 she took on and trouncedCzarist Russia. In a period of thirty-five years she had advanced fromfeudalism to a world power."

  Joe Chessman took his turn. He said obdurately, "Your paternalisticguidance, given an uncontrolled competitive system, doesn't always workout. Take India after she gained independence from England. She tried toindustrialize and had the support of the free nations. But whathappened?"

  Plekhanov leaned forward to take the ball. "Yes! There's your classicexample. Compare India and China. China had a planned industrialdevelopment. None of this free competition nonsense. In ten years timethey had startled the world with their advances. In twenty years--"

  "Yes," Stevens said softly, "but at what price?"

  Plekhanov turned on him. "At any price!" he roared. "In one generationthey left behind the China of famine, flood, illiteracy, war lords andall the misery that had been China's throughout history."

  Stevens said mildly, "Whether in their admitted advances they leftbehind all the misery that had been China's is debatable, sir."

  Plekhanov began to bellow an angry retort but Amschel Mayer poppedsuddenly to his feet and lifted a hand to quiet the others. "Oursolution has just come to me!"

  Plekhanov glowered at him.

  Mayer said excitedly, "Remember what the Co-ordinator told us? Thisexpedition of ours is the first of its type. Even though we fail, thevery mistakes we make will be invaluable. Our task is to learn how tobring backward peoples into an industrialized culture in roughly half acentury."

  The messroom's occupants scowled at him. Thus far he'd said nothing new.

  Mayer went on enthusiastically. "Thus far in our debates we've had twobasic suggestions on procedure. I have advocated a system of freecompetition; my learned colleague has been of the opinion that a strongstate and a planned, not to say totalitarian, economy would be thequicker." He paused dramatically. "Very well, I am in favor of tryingthem both."

  They regarded him blankly.

  He said with impatience, "There are two planets, at different ethnicperiods it is true, but not so far apart as all that. Fine, eight of uswill take Genoa and eight Texcoco."

  Plekhanov rumbled, "Fine, indeed. But which group will have the use ofthe _Pedagogue_ with its library, its laboratories, its shops, itsweapons?"

  For a moment, Mayer was stopped but Joe Chessman growled, "That's noproblem. Leave her in orbit around Rigel. We've got two small boats withwhich to ferry back and forth. Each group could have the use of herfacilities any time they wished."

  "I suppose we could have periodic conferences," Plekhanov said. "Sayonce every decade to compare notes and make further plans, ifnecessary."

  Natt Roberts was worried. "We had no such instructions from theCo-ordinator. Dividing our forces like that."

  Mayer cut him short. "My dear Roberts, we were given _carte blanche_. Itis up to us to decide procedure. Actually, this system realizes twicethe information such expeditions as ours might ordinarily offer."

  "Texcoco for me," Plekhanov grumbled, accepting the plan in its whole."The more backward of the two, but under my guidance in half a centuryit will be the more advanced, mark me."

  "Look here," Martin Gunther said. "Do we have two of each of the basicspecialists, so that we can divide the party in such a way that neitherplanet will miss out in any one field?"

  Amschel Mayer was beaming at the reception of his scheme. "The point iswell taken, my dear Martin, however you'll recall that our training wasdeliberately made such that each man spreads over several fields. Thisin case, during our half century without contact, one or more of usmeets with accident. Besides, the _Pedagogue's_ library is such that anyliterate can soon become effective in any field to the extent needed onthe Rigel planets."