Noel M. Loomis

“ Zytztz answered, "I don't know. I only know that so much contact with humans wearies us with its—forgive me—with its pettiness and selfishness. We can't endure it without a pause."
"You've been alone here on the Phoebus."
Mr. Zytztz looked embarrassed. "I hesitate to say this, but humans leave their mark on everything they associate with. A small amount of their dominant emotions is absorbed even by metal and so on."
"Then, when you get to Mars you don't do anything mysterious at all," said Healey. "You just go out into the desert and rest." ”

“ Zytztz turned to him and there was the hint of a chuckle in his words.
"Let us not be insubordinate, Admiral," he said gently. "There are few of us who don't sometime make a mistake that inadvertently causes trouble for others. The human organism is so complex, and so primitive, really. Things are done or said where the motivation is not what it seems. A tiny bit of anger or fear creeps in—perhaps fear of losing one's standing in the eyes of others—and the act is performed or the words are spoken without a great deal of logic."
Healey stared at him. ”

“ Cadet Healey answered, "Yes, sir."
Pickens leaned forward. "The Rocket Service is a dumping ground for men who get taken off active duty. There are no criminals or no-goods—that kind never have gotten into the Air Marines—but these are men who for one reason or another have hit bad luck. It isn't their fault—but the tradition of the International Air Marines is that no officer ever loses a ship except by enemy action." ”

“ Healey said. "Besides, maybe I can pick up a few phone numbers when we get to Vela."
Mr. Zytztz's leaves rustled softly. "You will be an old man when we reach home. You'll never live to get back to Earth."
"Close the hatches," Healey ordered. "Prepare to take off. It's a long trip."
Mr. Zytztz hesitated. Then one leaf raised in a regal salute.
They lifted her off the concrete. She slanted up and up and up at tremendous speed, and then, free of Mars' gravitational influence, curved downward into the sixty-year trajectory that would bring them to Gamma Velorum in the southern skies. ”

“ Zytztz was smiling softly to himself. "Because we're all males. Our wives and sweethearts are all back home in the Velorian system."
Browne gulped and stared at Healey. "Well, no wonder they want a ship," he said. "After eleven thousand years on Mars, I'd want to get back home and raise some little Zytztzes myself."
Healey could not speak for a few minutes. So that was why they wanted a ship—to go home! Home to wives and sweethearts and children and families. Home! Home to a place that was "very much like Earth," after eleven thousand years of patient waiting on the red alkali of Mars. ”

“ Secretly every one of us hopes that he will break the iron-bound tradition. We don't generally admit it and we know that nobody ever has broken it. We have our lives to lose in the Rocket Service, and nothing to gain, not even our former ranks. So long as we live, we'll officially be branded cadets and we'll get cadet pay. The rules say that no man needs more than one chance. You see, don't you, Cadet Healey, that there is no use even hoping? ”

“ One leaf raised and dipped in a salute, and Mr. Zytztz shuffled out fast.
The Old Man growled at Healey. "For a plant that isn't human, your Martian friend learns fast."
Healey winced. He had already done a lot of thinking about that.
The Zytztzes made perfect workmen; they were competent, strong, and tireless. But some things they couldn't do—they had to have help for even a simple repair job, but otherwise they had good brains. They followed orders even better than the robots back on Earth. ”

“ The chairman asked Healey into his office to look over some matters that had come up during Healey's absence on Jupiter, and when they were inside alone, with Mr. Zytztz waiting patiently in the reception room, the chairman turned to Healey.
"Look, Admiral, we respect your opinion and all that, but don't you see the—ah, fellow, if you wish—the fellow just isn't human. It wouldn't do, you know. After all, they're only plants. We must preserve the superiority of the human race." ”

“ Pickens' face was grim when he uttered the next words.
"A man should always be careful what he says, even in the heat of argument, because there always is a chance that somebody will believe him." He looked keenly at Healey. "The worst of it is, any of us may do the same thing as Philipuster when he least expects it." ”

“ Then men in the Rocket Service, themselves outcasts of the Air Marines, had tried long and vainly to be recognized. Failing, they formed their own rigid caste. And now Mr. Zytztz was battering his head against the same stone wall of indifference, because he, Healey, who had been one of the most ardent in trying to re-establish himself in the Air Marines, had damned the Zytztzes the first day he had seen them. It caused Healey a lot of serious thought and a lot of self-reproach. As a matter of fact, he would have done anything within his power to make things right for Mr. Zytztz. ”

“ Zytztz. "That's all we did for eleven thousand years on Mars."
"And you don't have to eat?"
"Practically speaking, no. We can get along very nicely for a hundred years or so of active life, just absorbing what energy we need from the sunlight and the air. Of course, the way we were living on Mars before the Phoebus came we could live forever."
"What planet did you come from?" Healey asked, looking through the porthole.
"The Fourteenth Planet of what you know as the star Gamma Velorum. It's a great deal like your Earth—physically speaking." ”

“ We are not a highly organized people. In fact, there never has been any need for organization at all. Our physical wants are almost nil, so there has been no incentive for one to get ahead of the others. But our progress committee wanted to become familiar with Earth's system, because we work on the theory that everything of that sort has advantages. So seven hundred and seventy-seven of us were sent on a rocket ship which we bought from the robots of the Eighteenth Planet, to investigate Earth's social system."
"Wait a minute," said Healey, sitting up. ”

“ Captain Pickens himself finally left the Phoebus to feel the earth of another planet. He tried to pick up a handful, but it was caked and hard.
The entire crew was under strict orders from the World Council to cause no harm to any living creature, and especially not to bring back any specimens of living creatures or plants. Any man who would have tried to touch one of the Martians would have been court-martialed. A young ensign, Marvin Browne, complained to Healey that there they were in port and the Old Man wouldn't even let him get a telephone number. ”

“ Zytztz.
"I suppose that you've made up your mind about class distinctions by now?" Healey said a little acidulously.
Mr. Zytztz was slow in replying. "I think," he said finally, "that it is still short of perfection."
Healey snorted.
Browne said thoughtfully, "I can understand all this stuff about Lemuria and anti-gravity and so on. That's plain enough. But what I can't understand is: you've had eleven thousand years with nothing to do but wait. Why didn't you ever have any offspring on Mars?" ”

“ Zytztz's code. He didn't realize how small Earth-men could be.
"Well, it's like this. Any Earth-man is afraid of anything or anybody that he thinks might outdo him, physically, mentally, emotionally, artistically—or what have you. He resents it. And as long as he can hold the other person down, he's likely to. The Zytztzes are the best people in my book," Healey went on warmly, "but that just makes it tougher on you among those who don't know you. If you weren't so intelligent and unassuming and so temperamentally perfect, maybe Earth-men would like you. ”

“ On the trip home Healey discovered how they had learned the language. They, in effect, read the minds of men. When a man spoke, they got the mental picture from his mind. Healey remembered some of the choice remarks he had made in Mr. Zytztz's hearing before he had any idea about their understanding, and it was, to be conservative, disquieting. He remembered when he had first denied them the right to be classified as humans, and when they reached Havana again he called a meeting of the Classification Section and proposed that the Martians be re-classified. ”

“ He sat down and began to mutter and shake his head as if to clear away the cobwebs.
"They've got to have somebody," said Healey doggedly. "If anything should go wrong on the trip they'd be utterly lost. They can't make things or repair things. The Phoebus is an old ship. There'll be lots of little things go wrong. They've got to have me. Don't you see?" His tone was almost pleading.
Browne looked at him. Healey knew that Browne was thinking of that day when they had planted the flag on Mars, and Healey had slammed the air-lock door in Mr. Zytztz's face. Browne stood up. ”

“ Zytztz handed him ninety pages of tele-written copy.
Healey was amazed but he was not surprised. He leafed through the manuscript and when he found the section on anti-gravity he uttered a yell.
"What this won't do to people like Senator Philipuster," he said, and chuckled.
"Simple, too, don't you think?" asked Mr. Zytztz.
Healey clucked his tongue. "Far easier than atomic power. And you can see that it will have to work. It's really nothing but an electronic adaptation of an old type of video circuit. What it does is get inside of gravitational power instead of trying to fight it." ”

“ But if the old admiral didn't have any better luck with the Air Marines' Board on Discipline than Healey had had with the Classification Section, it would be wasted time.
Healey saw Mr. Zytztz many times in the next several years. Everyone in the space lanes knew the Martian. He would ship out as a seaman, or sometimes as bos'n's mate with a crew of Martians, and when he reached port, whether it was on Mars or Luna or Jupiter or Io or Callisto or Ganymede, he would make the rounds, carrying his master's license hopefully with him—but getting nowhere. ”

“ But Pickens merely looked at him casually.
"Quite a sensation, isn't it, Commander, being on a strange planet?" he observed.
Healey breathed easier and began to get control of himself. Now that the Old Man had forgiven him, he was able to compose himself.
The Old Man was the first to cross-examine him, then the ship's biologist took over.
The biologist asked questions about the plants.
"I am trying to decide whether they should be classified as 'human,'" he explained to the Old Man. "They're unquestionably mobile, and probably sentient."
Somehow the word "human" struck Healey wrong. ”

“ Healey looked hard at Mr. Zytztz.
"Is that why there are always seven hundred and seventy-seven Martians?"
The leaves nodded. "Yes, but I am afraid after the law becomes inoperative, there will be accidents and Martians will be killed."
Captain Browne rubbed his chin. "I don't believe you trust us, Mr. Zytztz," he said gently.
Mr. Zytztz seemed to sigh. "Humans are ruled so much by emotion, and so often those emotions are obscure," he observed.
"I guess you're right," said Browne. "They aren't all as obvious as Senator Philipuster." ”

“ There were issues of rum that night, a hangover from the old British Navy, and each officer on the captain's staff killed a pint of the best Scotch, and nobody slept. Everybody pretended to have too much to do. By daylight every man who could get near a quartz porthole was trying to see outside, and the Old Man—they had assumed the prerogative of referring to Pickens behind his back with that respectful term of disrespect—the Old Man was staring at the ground glass screen of his video.
"Commander," he said to Healey, "what do you make of this?" ”

“ Zytztz would study the stars for hours, and presently his leaf-ends would delicately touch the controls as if he was suggesting a change in course.
"And confound it all," Healey told the Old Man, "he's always right when Browne checks on us."
Ether-travel in those days was very much dependent on navigation, for machinery had not yet been developed to allow for all the forces exerted by the various gravitational pulls, the solar drift, centrifugal inertia, strange magnetic currents, velocity, trajectory, planetary orbits, and the still unexplained ether drift. ”

“ Three months later Healey dropped him off at Mars on the way to Jupiter. Mr. Zytztz was pretty wilted and limp-looking, but he said:
"Thanks, Admiral. See you in Havana."
On the way back to Earth, a shuttle-boat met them out from Mars, and Mr. Zytztz came through the air-lock.
"I have just talked to Mr. Morgan, who represents Ether Fleet, Inc.," he said happily. "He has practically promised me a berth if I can get a master's certificate."
Healey gasped. "A master's certificate!"
"Yes," Mr. Zytztz purred proudly. "He said all their mates hold master's certificates. ”

“ Mr. Zytztz absorbed all that in silence. Finally Healey said as a clincher, "You may as well give it up. You'll never get a ship." He studied him then, and again he caught the strong feeling of that tremendous, illimitable patience that would conquer anything.
Healey did not retire in 2158. Atomic engines came out in a form adaptable to space ships. Space Travel, Inc., built a new ship called the Philipuster, and to Captain Browne's great disgust, the senator's niece splashed a third bottle of champagne on its magnificent burnished hull. ”