Citizen in Spase. Stories / Гражданин в Космосе. Рассказы. Книга для чтения на английском языке

“What do they want?” Morrison asked.

The interpreter said, “Well, Mr. Morrison, boiling it down, they’ve changed their minds. They want their planet back, and they’re willing to return all our presents.”

Morrison sighed. He couldn’t very well explain to them that Work Order 35 wasn’t “their” planet, or anyone’s planet. Land couldn’t be possessed – merely occupied. Necessity was the judge. This planet belonged more truly to the several million Earth settlers who would utilize it, than to the few hundred thousand savages who scurried over its surface.

“Tell them again,” Morrison said, “all about the splendid reservation we’ve set aside for them. We’re going to feed them, clothe them, educate them —”

Dengue came up quietly. “We’re going to astonish them with kindness,” he said. “To every man, a wrist watch, a pair of shoes, and a government seed catalogue. To every woman, a lipstick, a bar of soap, and a set of genuine cotton curtains.

“Now you’re interfering with work,” Morrison said. “And in front of witnesses.”

Dengue knew the rules. “Sorry, old man,” he said, and moved back.

“They say they’ve changed their minds,” the interpreter said. “To render it idiomatically, they say we are to return to our demonland in the sky or they will destroy us with strong magic. The sacred drums are weaving the curse now, and the spirits are gathering.

Morrison looked at the savages with pity. Something like this happened on every planet with a native population. The same meaningless threats were always made by pre-civilized peoples with an inflated opinion of themselves and no concept at all of the power of technology. He knew primitive humans too well. Great boasters, great killers of the local variety of rabbits and mice. Occasionally fifty of them would gang up on a tired buffalo, tormenting it into exhaustion before they dared approach close enough to torture out its life with pin pricks from their dull spears.

“Tell them to get the hell out of here,” Morrison said. “Tell them if they come near this camp they’ll find some magic that really works.”

The interpreter called after him, “They’re promising big bad trouble in five supernatural categories.