Books: The Emancipatrix
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Homer Eon Flint >> The Emancipatrix
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"The big man is a tender of cattle, Supreme; and he owes his peculiar
aptitude to the fact that his parents, for twenty generations back, were
engaged in similar work. The same may be said for the younger of the two
women; she is small, but we owe much of the excellence of our crops to
her energy and skill.
"As for the other woman," indicating Rolla, "she is a soil-tester, and
very expert. Her studies and experiments have greatly improved our
product. The same may be said in lesser degree of the youth, who is
engaged in similar work."
"Then," coolly commented the Sanusian whose eyes and ears Billie
enjoyed; "then your line of action is clear enough. You will see to it
that the big man marries the sturdy young girl, of course; their
offspring should give us a generation of rare outdoor ability. Similarly
the young man and the older woman, despite their difference in ages,
shall marry for the sake of improving the breed of soil-testers."
"Quite so, Supreme. There is one slight difficulty, however, such as
caused me to summon you."
"Name the difficulty."
The Sanusian hesitated only a trifle with her reply: "It is, Supreme,
that the big man and the older woman have seen fit to fall in love with
one another, while the same is true of the youth and the girl."
"This should not have been allowed!"
"I admit it, Supreme; my force has somehow overlooked their case,
heretofore. What is your will?"
The commandant answered instantly: "Put an immediate end to their
desires!"
"It shall be done!"
At that moment there was a stir on the ground. In fact, this was the
instant when Corrus began his vehement outcry against the tyranny of
"They." The two in the air came closer; whereupon Billie discovered that
Supreme did not understand the language of the humans below. [Footnote:
The humans did not realize this fact, however; they assumed that "They"
always understood.] Yet the herdsman's tones were unmistakably angry.
"You will descend," commented Supreme evenly, "and warn the big man not
to repeat such outbreaks."
Immediately Supreme's lieutenant darted down, and was lost to view. The
commandant glanced interestedly here and there about the landscape,
returning her gaze to Corrus just as the man stopped in mid-speech.
Billie was no less astonished than the doctor to see the herdsman's
expression change as it did; one second it was that of righteous
indignation, the next, of the most abject subservience.
Nevertheless, Billie could see no cause whatever for it; neither did she
hear anything. The other flier remained out of sight. All that the
architect could guess was that the operator had "got the drop" on Corrus
in some manner which was clear only to those involved. Badly puzzled,
Billie watched the four humans hurry away, their manner all but
slinking.
A moment later still another aircraft came up, and its operator
reported. As before, Billie could make out not a single detail of the
occupant herself. She, too, wanted the commandant's personal attention;
and shortly Billie was looking down upon a scene which she had good
reason to remember all the rest of her life.
In the middle of a large field, where some light green plant was just
beginning to sprout, a group of about a dozen humans was at work
cultivating. Billie had time to note that they were doing the work in
the most primitive fashion, employing the rudest of tools, all quite in
keeping with their bare heads and limbs and their skin-clad bodies.
About half were women.
Slightly at one side, however, stood a man who was not so busy. To put
it plainly, he was loafing, with the handle of his improvised mattock
supporting his weight. Clearly the two up in the air were concerned only
with him.
"He has been warned three times, Supreme," said the one who had reported
the case.
"Three? Then make an example of him!"
"It shall be done, Supreme!"
The lieutenant disappeared. Again the commandant glanced at this, that,
and the other thing before concentrating upon what happened below. Then
Billie saw the man straighten up suddenly in his tracks, and with
remarkable speed, considering his former laziness, he whirled about,
dodged, and clapped a hand upon his thigh.
Next second he raised an exultant cry. Billie could not understand what
he said; but she noted that the others in the group echoed the man's
exultation, and started to crowd toward him, shouting and gesticulating
in savage delight. Then something else happened so sudden and so
dreadful that the woman who was watching from the earth was turned
almost sick.
Like a flash Supreme dropped, headlong, toward the group of humans. In
two seconds the distance was covered, and in the last fifth of a second
Billie saw the key to the whole mystery.
In that last instant the man who before had seemed of ordinary size, was
magnified to the dimensions of a colossus. Instead of being under six
feet, he appeared to be near a hundred yards in height; but Billie
scarcely realized this till later, it all happened so quickly. There was
an outcry from the group, and then the commandant's aircraft crashed
into the man's HAND; a hand so huge that the very wrinkles in its skin
were like so many gulleys; even in that final flash Billie saw all this.
Simultaneously with the landing there was a loud pop, while Billie's
senses reeled with the stunning suddenness of the impact. Next second
the machine had darted to a safe distance, and Billie could see the man
gnawing frantically at the back of his hand. Too late; his hand went
stiff, and his arm twitched spasmodically. The fellow made a step or two
forward, then swayed where he stood, his whole body rigid and strained.
An expression of the utmost terror was upon his face; he could not utter
a sound, although his companions shrieked in horror. Another second and
the man fell flat, twitching convulsively; and in a moment or two it was
all over. He was dead!
And then the truth burst upon the watcher. In fact, it seemed to come to
all four at the same time, probably by reason of their mental
connections. Neither of them could claim that he or she had previously
guessed a tenth of its whole, ghastly nature.
The "cane" which Smith had seen had not been cane at all; it had been
grass. The "beetle" in the stream had not been the giant thing he had
visualized it; neither had that fish been the size he had thought.
Van Emmon's "gold mine" had not been a pit in any sense of the word; it
had been the inside of the blossom of a very simple, poppy-like flower.
The "nuggets" had been not mineral, but pollen. As for the incredible
thing which Van Emmon had seen on the ground; that living statue; that
head without a body--the body had been buried out of sight beneath the
soil; and the man had been an ordinary human, being punished in this
manner for misconduct.
Instead of being aircraft built in imitation of insects, the machines
had been constructed by nature herself, and there had been nothing
unusual in their size. No; they were the real thing, differing only
slightly from what might have been found anywhere upon the earth.
In short, it had all been simply a matter of view-point. The supreme
creature of Sanus was, not the human, but the bee. A poisonous bee,
superior to every other form of Sanusian life! What was more--
"The damned things are not only supreme; THE HUMANS ARE THEIR SLAVES!"
VI
IMPOSSIBLE, BUT--
The four looked at each other blankly. Not that either was at a loss for
words; each was ready to burst. But the thing was so utterly beyond
their wildest conceptions, so tremendously different in every way, it
left them all a little unwilling to commit themselves.
"Well," said Smith finally, "as I said in the first place, I can't see
how any other than the human form became supreme. As I understand
biology--"
"What gets me," interrupted Van Emmon; "what gets me is, WHY the humans
have allowed such an infernal thing to happen!"
Billie smiled somewhat sardonically. "I thought," she remarked,
cuttingly, "that you were always in sympathy with the upper dog, Mr. Van
Emmon!"
"I am!" hotly. Then, with the memory of what he had just seen rushing
back upon him: "I mean, I was until I saw--saw that--" He stopped,
flushing deeply; and before he could collect himself Smith had broken in
again:
"I just happened to remember, doc; didn't you say that the Venusians, in
those books of yours, say that Sanus is ruled by the workers?"
"Just what I was wondering about," from Van Emmon. "The humans seem to
do all the work, and the bees the bossing!"
The doctor expected this. "The Venusians had our view-point--the view-
point of people on the earth, when they said that the workers rule. We
consider the bee as a great worker, don't we? 'As busy as a bee' you
know. None of the so-called lower animals show greater industry."
"You don't mean to say," demanded Smith, "that these Sanusian bees owe
their position to the fact that they are, or were, such great workers?"
Before the doctor could reply, Van Emmon broke in. It seemed as though
his mind refused to get past this particular point. "Now, why the
dickens have the humans allowed the bees to dominate them? Why?"
"We'll have to go at this a little more systematically," remarked
Kinney, "if we want to understand the situation.
"In the first place, suppose we note a thing or two about conditions as
we find them here on the earth. We, the humans, are accustomed to rank
ourselves far above the rest. It is taken for granted.
"Now, note this: the human supremacy was not always taken for granted."
He paused to let it sink in. "Not always. There was a time in
prehistoric days when man ranked no higher than others. I feel sure of
this," he insisted, seeing that Smith was opposed to the idea; "and I
think I know just what occurred to make man supreme."
"What?" from Billie.
"Never mind now. I rather imagine we shall learn more on this score as
we go on with our work.
"At any rate, we may be sure of this: whatever it was that caused man to
become supreme on the earth, that condition is lacking on Sanus!"
Van Emmon did not agree to this. "The condition may be there, doc, but
there is some other factor which overbalances it; a factor such as is--
well, more favorable to the bees."
The doctor looked around the circle. "What do you think? 'A factor more
favorable to the bees.' Shall we let it go at that?" There was no
remark, even from Smith; and the doctor went on:
"Coming back to the bees, then, we note that they are remarkable for
several points of great value. First, as we have seen, they are very
industrious by nature. Second, all bees possess wings and on that count
alone they are far superior to humans.
"Third--and to me, the most important--the bees possess a remarkable
combination of community life and specialization. Of course, when you
come to analyze these two points, you see that they really belong to one
another. The bees we know, for instance, are either queens, whose only
function is to fertilize the eggs; or workers, who are unsexed females,
and whose sole occupations are the collecting of honey, the building of
hives, and the care of the young.
"Now," speaking carefully, "apparently these Sanusian bees have
developed something that is not unknown to certain forms of earth's
insect life. I mean, a soldier type. A kind of bee which specializes on
fighting!"
Van Emmon was listening closely, yet he had got another idea: "Perhaps
this soldier type is simply the plain worker bee, all gone to sting! It
may be that these bees have given up labor altogether!"
"Still," muttered Smith, under his breath, "all this doesn't solve the
real problem. Why aren't the HUMANS supreme?" For once he became
emphatic. "That's what gets me! Why aren't the humans the rulers, doc?"
Kinney waited until he felt sure the others were depending upon him.
"Smith, the humans on Sanus are not supreme now because they were NEVER
supreme."
Smith looked blank. "I don't get that."
"Don't you? Look here: you'll admit that success begets success, won't
you?"
"Success begets success? Sure! 'Nothing succeeds like success.'"
"Well, isn't that merely another way of saying that the consciousness of
superiority will lead to further conquests? We humans are thoroughly
conscious of our supremacy; if we weren't we'd never attempt the things
we do!"
Van Emmon saw the point. "In other words, the humans on the earth never
BEGAN to show their superiority until something--something big, happened
to demonstrate their ability!"
"Exactly!" cried Kinney. "Our prehistoric ancestors would never have
handed down such a tremendous ambition to you and me if they, at that
time, had not been able to point to some definite feat and say, 'That
proves I'm a bigger man than a horse,' for example."
"Of course," reflected Billie, aloud; "of course, there were other
factors."
"Yes; but they don't alter the case. Originally the human was only
slightly different from the apes he associated with. There was perhaps
only one slight point of superiority; today there are millions of such
points. Man is infinitely superior, now, and it's all because he was
slightly superior, then."
"Suppose we grant that," remarked the geologist. "What then? Does that
explain why the bees have made good on Sanus?"
"To a large degree. Some time in the past the Sanusian bee discovered
that he possessed a certain power which enabled him to force his will
upon other creatures. This power was his poisonous sting. He found that,
when he got his fellows together and formed a swarm, they could attack
any animal in such large numbers as to make it helpless."
"Any creature?"
"Yes; even reptiles, scales or no scales. They'd attack the eyes."
"But that doesn't explain how the bees ever began to make humans work
for them," objected Van Emmon.
The doctor thought for a few minutes. "Let's see. Suppose we assume that
a certain human once happened to be in the neighborhood of a hive, just
when it was attacked by a drove of ants. Ants are great lovers of honey,
you know. Suppose the man stepped among the ants and was bitten.
Naturally he would trample them to death, and smash with his hands all
that he couldn't trample. Now, what's to prevent the bees from seeing
how easily the man had dealt with the ants? A man would be far more
efficient, destroying ants, than a bee; just as a horse is more
efficient, dragging a load, than a man. And yet we know that the horse
was domesticated, here on the earth, simply because the humans saw his
possibilities; the horse could do a certain thing more efficiently than
a human.
"You notice," the doctor went on, with great care, "that everything I've
assumed is natural enough: the combination of an ant attack and the
man's approach, occurring at the same time. Suppose we add a third
factor: that the bees, even while fighting the ants, also started to
attack the man; but that he chanced to turn his attention to the ants
FIRST. So that the bees let him alone!
"We know what remarkable things bees are, when it comes to telling one
another what they know. Is there any reason why such an experience--all
natural enough--shouldn't demonstrate to them that they, by merely
threatening a man, could compel him to kill ants for them?"
Billie was dubious for a moment; then agreed that the man, also, might
notice that the bees failed to sting him as long as he continued to
destroy their other enemies. If so, it was quite conceivable that, bit
by bit, the bees had found other and more positive ways of securing the
aid of men through threatening to sting. "Even to cultivating flowers
for their benefit," she conceded. "It's quite possible."
Smith had been thinking of something else. "I always understood that a
bee's stinging apparatus is good for only one attack. Doesn't it always
remain behind after stinging?"
"Yes," from the doctor, quietly. "That is true. The sting has tiny barbs
on its tip, and these cause it to remain in the wound. The sting is
actually torn away from the bee when it flies away. It never grows
another. That is why, in fact, the bee never stings except as a last
resort, when it thinks it's a question of self-defense."
"Just what I thought!" chuckled Smith. "A bee is helpless without its
sting! If so, how can you account for anything like a soldier bee?"
The doctor returned his gaze with perfect equanimity. He looked at Van
Emmon and Billie; they, too, seemed to think that the engineer had found
a real flaw in Kinney's reasoning. The doctor dropped his eyes, and
searched his mind thoroughly for the best words. He removed his
bracelets while he was thinking; the others did the same. All four got
to their feet and stretched, silently but thoroughly. Not until they
were ready to quit the study did the doctor make reply.
"Smith, I don't need to remind you that it's the little things that
count. It's too old a saying. In this case it happens to be the greatest
truth we have found today.
"Smith"--speaking with the utmost care--"what we have just said about
the bee's sting is all true; but only with regard to the bees on the
earth. It is only on the earth, so far as we know positively, that the
bee is averse to stinging, for fear of losing his sting.
"There is only one way to account for the soldier bee. Its sting has no
barbs!"
"No barbs?"
"Why no? If the poison is virulent enough, the barbs wouldn't be
necessary, would they? Friends, the Sanusian bee is the supreme creature
on its planet; it is superior to all the other insects, all the birds,
all the animals; and its supremacy is due solely and entirely to the
fact that there are no barbs on its sting!"
VII
THE MISSING FACTOR
By the time the four once more got together in the doctor's study, each
had had a chance to consider the Sanusian situation pretty thoroughly.
All but Billie were convinced that the humans were deserving people,
whose position was all the more regrettable because due, so far as could
be seen, the insignificant little detail of the barbless sting.
Were these people doomed forever to live their lives for the sake of
insects? Were they always to remain, primitive and uncultured, in
ignorance of, the things that civilization is built upon, obeying the
orders of creatures who were content to eat, reproduce, and die? For
that is all that bees know!
Perhaps it was for the best. Possibly Rolla and her friends were better
off as they were. It might have been that a wise Providence, seeing how
woefully the human animal had missed its privileges on other worlds, had
decided to make man secondary on Sanus. Was that the reason for it all?
All but Billie scouted the idea. To them the affair was a ghastly
perversion of what Nature intended. Van Emmon stated the case in a
manner which showed how strongly he felt about it.
"Those folks will never get anywhere if the bees can help it!" he
charged. "We've got to lend a hand, here, and see that they get a
chance!"
Smith said that, so far as he was concerned, the bees might all be
consigned to hell. "I'm not going to have anything to do with the agent
I had, any more!" he declared. "I'm going to get in touch with that
chap, Dulnop. What is he like, doc?"
Kinney told him, and then Van Emmon asked for details of the herdsman,
Corrus. "No more bees in my young life, either. From now on it's up to
us. What do you think?" turning to his wife, and carefully avoiding any
use of her name.
The architect knew well enough that the rest were wondering how she
would decide. She answered with deliberation:
"I'm going to stay in touch with Supreme!"
"You are!" incredulously, from her husband.
"Yes! I've got a darned sight more sympathy for those bees than for the
humans! The 'fraid-cats!" disgustedly.
"But listen," protested Van Emmon. "We can't stand by and let those
cold-blooded prisoners keep human beings, like ourselves, in rank
slavery! Not much!"
Evidently he thought he needed to explain. "A human is a human, no
matter where we find him! Why, how can those poor devils show what
they're good for if we don't give 'em a chance? That's the only way to
develop people--give 'em a chance to show what's in 'em! Let the best
man win!"
Billie only closed her mouth tighter; and Smith decided to say, "Billie,
you don't need to stand by your guns just because the Sanusian working
class happens to be insects. Besides, we're three to one in favor of the
humans!"
"Oh, well," she condescended, "if you put it that way I'll agree not to
interfere. Only, don't expect me to help you any with your schemes; I'll
just keep an eye on Supreme, that's all."
"Then we're agreed." The doctor put on his bracelets. "Suppose we go
into the trance state for about three minutes--long enough to learn
what's going on to-day."
Shortly Billie again using the eyes and ears of the extraordinarily
capable bee who ruled the rest, once more looked down upon Sanus. She
saw the big "city," which she now knew to be a vast collection of hives,
built by the humans at the command of the bees. At the moment the air
was thick with workers, returning with their loads of honey from the
fields which the humans had been compelled to cultivate. What a
diabolical reversal of the accepted order of things!
The architect had time to note something very typical of the case. On
the outskirts of the city two humans were at work, erecting a new hive.
Having put it together, they proceeded to lift the big box and place it
near those already inhabited. They set it down in what looked like a
good location, but almost immediately took it up again and shifted it a
foot to one side. This was not satisfactory, either; they moved it a few
inches in another direction.
All told, it took a full minute to place that simple affair where it was
wanted; and all the while those two humans behaved as though some one
were shouting directions to them--silent directions, as it were. Billie
knew that a half-dozen soldier bees, surrounding their two heads, were
coolly and unfeelingly driving them where they willed. And when, the
work done, they left the spot, two soldiers went along behind them to
see that they did not loiter.
As for the doctor, he came upon Rolla when the woman was deep in an
experiment. She stood in front of a rude trough, one of perhaps twenty
located within a large, high-walled inclosure. In the trough was a
quantity of earth, through the surface of which some tiny green shoots
were beginning to show.
Rolla inspected the shoots, and then, with her stone knife, she made a
final notch in the wood on the edge of the trough. There were twenty-odd
of these notches; whereas, on other troughs which the doctor had a
chance to see, there were over thirty in many cases, and still no
shoots.
The place, then, was an experimental station. This was proven by Rolla's
next move. She went outside the yard and studied five heaps of soil,
each of a different appearance, also three smaller piles of pulverized
mineral-nitrates, for all that the doctor knew. And before Kinney
severed his connection with the Sanusian, she had begun the task of
mixing up a fresh combination of these ingredients in a new trough. In
the midst of this she heard a sound; and turning about, waved a hand
excitedly toward a distant figure on the far side of a near-by field.
Meanwhile Smith had managed to get in touch with Dulnop. He found the
young man engaged in work which did not, at first, become clear to the
engineer. Then he saw that the chap was simply sorting over big piles of
broken rock, selecting certain fragments which he placed in separate
heaps. Not far away two assistants were pounding these fragments to
powder, using rude pestles, in great, nature-made mortars--"pot-holes,"
from some river-bed.
It was this powder, beyond a doubt, that Rolla was using in her work. To
Smith, Dunlop's task seemed like a ridiculously simple occupation for a
nearly grown man, until he reflected that these aborigines were exactly
like toddling children in intellects.
Van Emmon had no trouble in making connections with Corrus. The herdsman
was in charge of a dozen cows, wild looking creatures which would have
been far too much for the man had they been horned, which they were not.
He handled them by sheer force, using the great club he always carried.
Once while Van Emmon was watching, a cow tried to break away from the
group; but Corrus, with an agility amazing in so short and heavy a man,
dashed after the creature and tapped her lightly on the top of her head.
Dazed and contrite, she followed him meekly back into the herd.
The place was on the edge of a meadow, at the beginning of what looked
like a grain field. Stopping here, Corrus threw a hand to his mouth and
gave a ringing shout. Immediately it was answered, faintly, by another
at a distance; and then Van Emmon made out the form of Rolla among some
huts on the other side of the grain. She beckoned toward the herdsman,
and he took a half-dozen steps toward her.
Just as abruptly he stopped, almost in mid-stride. Simultaneously Van
Emmon heard a loud buzzing in either ear. Coitus was being warned. Like
a flash he dropped his head and muttered: "Very well. I will remember--
next time." And trembling violently he turned back to his cows.
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