Brain World, page 7
"Coffee?" Ronny said, taking a seat across from the other. "I thought that coffee wasn't drunk on Einstein."
"That captain didn't know what he was talking about. He also said that they didn't drink alcohol. Whatever we find here on Einstein, it won't be an austere way of life. I'll wager he never got out of his space freighter here.
"Wizard. Order me a cup of coffee, some croissants and some orange marmalade." Dorn Horsten projected his voice over the table and repeated the order. While Ronny was waiting for it, his companion told him about the happenings of the night before.
Ronny stared at him. "What in the name of the Holy Ultimate were they looking for?"
"I can't come up with anything."
The light breakfast arrived and Ronny set to, scowling.
He said, finally, "From what little we've seen and heard so far it doesn't seem to be a planet where you'd run into burglars. They dont even bother to put locks on the doors." Dorn could only nod and poured more coffee for himself. "You'd think this was Earth-side coffee," he said, "or even better." Ronny said, "And this marmalade obviously was made from real oranges. It's seldom you get good citrus fruit off Earth."
When he had finished his croissants, they took up fresh cups of coffee and went out into the living room.
After they were seated, Dorn said, "Did you find out anything special, after we separated last night?"
"Yeah," Ronny said. "They have sex tutors for the kids here. Give them a course in how to perform in bed, after they become adolescent." Horsten snorted. "That'd make for a howl on Virtue. They still wear Mother Hubbards there."
"It'd make for a howl on some of the other backward worlds," Ronny said. "But not enough to keep Einstein out of United Planets. I still wonder why in the hell they want to bother to join. They've got it made. What can we do for them?" A voice from the door said, "Am I intruding?"
The newcomer was accompanied by a male dog who had short and dark golden hair, and even golden eyes, and a bobbed tail, and who would possibly weigh seventy-five pounds. It was a beautiful hound. The man himself seemed to be approximately fifty years of age, was handsome and distinguished of face, looked very intelligent and wore kilts very similar to the ones Rosemary had on the day before. Somehow, on him they looked quite masculine, while on Rosemary they had not detracted from her femininity.
The two Section G agents put down their cups and came to their feet.
"Certainly not," Dorn Horsten said. "I am Doctor Dorn Horsten and this…"
"Is the famed Ronald Bronston," the other smiled, advancing. "My name is Fredric." They shook hands, Earth-style.
Fredric said, "I am one of the committee elected to meet you. It is a pleasure. That coffee smells excellent. I think I shall go to Rosemary's dining room and get a cup." Ronny and Dorn sat down again and took up their beverages. Ronny said, "He doesn't sound any more of an egghead than anybody else." The dog came over and extended his right paw and said to Ronny, "Hello, glad, to meet you."
Ronny looked at him for a long empty moment, before shaking the paw. The dog said, "What's your name again?"
"Ronny. What's yours?"
The golden dog hung his long red tongue out from the side of his mouth and gave a double pant before saying, looking all the world as though he was embarrassed. "Boy. These people have no imagination. I suppose I shouldn't complain. I've got a friend they call Fido."
He turned and went over to Dorn Horsten, who was gaping at him as much as was Ronny. He held out his paw and said, "Glad to meet you, too." Dorn shook and said, "The feeling is mutual. I am absolutely fascinated to meet you."
The dog sat down on the floor and looked up at him. "You're from Earth, aren't you?
I understand that dogs don't talk on Earth. Why not?" The eminent biologist looked at him blankly. "It never occurred to me to wonder about it," he said.
Fredric came back from the dining room, coffee cup in hand. He was smiling and had evidently heard the last of the conversation. He said to Boy, "On Earth, practically no animals, save man, have voice boxes. Some that do, such as the parrot, the Myna bird, and, to a certain extent, the higher anthropoid apes, have insufficient brain capacity to utilize them intelligently. Now, that will be all for the time, Boy."
"Okay," Boy said and stretched out on the floor.
"Now wait a minute," Dorn blurted. "This isn't a farce, is it? I mean, you're not a ventriloquist?"
"No. Certainly not," Fredric told him, after taking a sip of his coffee. "When our people left Earth for Einstein, we brought with us quite a bit of the fauna of the mother planet. Man's immediate pets, such as the dog and cat, who have come down with him through the millenia, almost as though there was a symbiotic relationship, we chose on the basis of intelligence. In the case of the cat, the Siamese. With the dog, the Poodle and Vizsla. Boy is a Vizsla."
"I've never heard of the breed," Ronny said unhappily. "But even if I had, I doubt if they talk on Earth. You must be one hell of a trainer." The other smiled, as though Ronny was making a joke. He said, "The Vizsla is one of the oldest breeds. They came with the Magyars from the steppes of Siberia to Europe. They were originally war dogs, then hunting hounds, and are the most versatile of all. They were pointers as well as retrievers and would hunt any game from birds to wild boar, to elk, or bear, for that matter."
"That was a long time ago," Boy said. "There's nothing to hunt on Einstein." Dorn Horsten said, "But…but, this talking." The other shrugged. "Man has had the dog for as long as we can trace him back. The relationship has become almost a necessity. However, we found it inconvenient for our pets to be so very less intelligent than we. So we performed genetic surgery and altered their DNA to produce a voice box, and upgraded their intelligence considerably through selective breeding and other devices." I He seemed to think that was sufficient explanation. Ronny stared at Boy, who was lying there on the floor, his tongue dangling out the side of his mouth.
Ronny said, "I've always liked dogs. I'd give my right arm for…"
"The animal is yours," Fredric said. Ronny boggled at him. He said, "Oh, really, now. That's very kind of you, but…"
"What's the matter?" Boy said. "Don't you want me?" Aside from a guttural quality, his voice tone was quite good and very understandable.
Fredric said, "Think nothing of it. Dogs are a hobby of mine but I have quite a few and was planning to dispense with some of them. Boy is one of the few I've ever taught Amer-English. The others speak our version of Esperanto. He even reads Amer-English quite well, though his taste in novels is atrocious."
"But, well in my whole life I never expected a dog like Boy to belong to me."
"We'll soon find out who belongs to whom," the dog muttered.
"Good. It's done," Fredric said. "None of the others of the committee have shown up as yet, eh?"
The dog had got up, walked over to Ronny, gave his leg a good smell, seemed to approve, and stretched out at his feet.
Dorn Horsten said, "Rosemary has been kind enough to inform us of some of your usages. She mentioned that you have no officials on Einstein. But this committee of yours? Aren't you officials?"
"Oh, no. Not in the ordinary sense of the word. We're a temporary committee elected to meet this particular situation. That is, to answer any questions you might wish to ask about Einstein, or to show you anything you might wish to see."
"Who elected you?" Ronny said.
The other scowled slightly at him, as though the question didn't make much sense.
"Why, the people."
"All of the people?"
"All who bothered to vote."
Dorn Horsten pushed his glasses further back on the bridge of his nose. He said,
"Well, who nominated you, Citizen Fredric?"
"Just Fredric," the other said. "Anyone who wished to." Ronny had reached down to give the dog's back a scratch and was rewarded with a double wag of the tail. He said, "That's not very clear. Would you elucidate?"
"Certainly. When the news was released that you were on your way, it became obvious that there would have to be a committee. The computers were consulted as to what citizens would be best suited to act. Then our people nominated whomever they wished. The twelve who received the most nominations were put up for the vote. Those of us who were interested voted and the six who received the largest number of votes became the committee."
"How did Rosemary get into the act?" Ronny said. Fredric looked at him, and said, "We of the committee selected her."
"Let's go back for a moment," Dorn Horsten said. "You said all of the people, and Rosemary have already mentioned that you have complete sexual equality. But what is the minimum age of the electorate?"
"There is none."
Ronny frowned. "You mean a ten year old child can vote in your elections?"
"If he or she so wishes. Usually a child of that age has little interest in elections, or has insufficient knowledge of whatever subject is being considered. But if the vote is being taken on some subject in which he is interested and has an opinion, why yes, he can and does vote."
Ronny shook his head. This was a new one. He said, "To return to this no-officials thing. You've got to have at least some officials to run your government." The other shook his head. "Didn't Rosemary tell you? We have no government." While the two Section G agents were gawking at him, Rosemary walked in. She was attired in practically identical clothing to that she had worn the day before and she made a little yawn before smiling her bright smile. "Good morning, Dorn and Ronny. Good morning, Fredric. Did everyone sleep well?" Without waiting for an answer, she departed into the dining room, obviously in search of coffee herself. Ronny said, "No government! Do you mean that yours is an anarchist socio-economic system? It's one thing for a backward agricultural society such as Kropotkin to have no government. But Einstein would seem to be one of the most advanced worlds, economically, scientifically, technologically and so forth. You can't run a society like this without a government."
Fredric sipped at his coffee. "Yes, you can," he said mildly. Dorn Horsten shook his head in amazement. He said, "And you have no president, no premier, no king or other head of state?"
"We don't have a state, let alone a head of state." The dog looked up from where he'd had his head resting on his paws, cocked his ears forward a little, and said in a half growl, "Somebody is coming."
Chapter Ten
The newcomers were two women. Fredric and the Section G operatives came to their feet.
To Ronny's surprise, both of them were as attractive as Rosemary, though ten or fifteen years her senior. They wore their hair in much the same manner she did, obviously more interested in comfort than anything else. One was a redhead, the other a jet-black brunette, who looked as though she was at least half Negro. If Rosemary had reminded Ronny of that motion picture beauty of yesteryear, Jean Simmons, this one reminded him of Lena Horne of the same period. She was a knockout. They both wore approximately the same outfit that Rosemary did, blouse and kilt, though they differed in color.
They had entered from the patio and now advanced, smiling. These people did one hell of a lot of smiling, Ronny decided, even as he shook hands with them. The redhead said, "My name's Barbara," and the brunette flashed perfect teeth and said, "And mine's Mattie."
Fredric said, "And, of course, these are our visitors, Doctor Dorn Horsten and Ronald Bronston. Dorn and Ronny, by our custom."
Rosemary came back in bearing a tray with sugar, milk, cups, spoons, and a vacuum pot of coffee.
She said, "Hello, Mattie, Barbara. Won't everybody sit down? And who would like coffee? Or anything else for that matter."
Even before they had settled, the three remaining members of the committee arrived, two men and a woman.
They were introduced, Darlene, Max and Marvin, and were soon organized. They were all extremely handsome, Ronny decided. Rosemary had been correct when she said that on Einstein they bred for physical as well as mental attributes. Marvin seemed to be the youngest, at possibly forty. The six of the committee seemed to run from forty to fifty-five. On the youngish side, as government officials went, but, then, they had pointed out that they weren't government officials. Settled again, spaced out very informally, Fredric said, "I suggest that we elect a chairman."
Darlene, who was an older edition of Rosemary, and just as attractive, in a more mature way, said, "You asked for it. I nominate Fredric."
"Second," Mattie said.
"Any more nominations?" Barbara said.
Evidently there were none. On the face of it, nobody gave a damn who the chairman was. The vote was unanimous.
All sipped their coffee for a moment.
Dorn Horsten politely said to Marvin, "That's a beautiful ring you have. Looks something like an Earth-side opal. One of the Australian black opals. I've always admired them."
Marvin took it off and handed it over to the doctor. He said, "Yes, our Einstein opals are basically quite similar of those of Earth. They aren't a crystalline body, of course, but an amorphous mass of hydrous silica, which, in solidifying from a jelly-like state, is penetrated by cracks, these later becoming filled with material differing in water content from the original material and hence of different density. It becomes a beautiful gem. We don't have the fire opal here, such as I know is a product of Mother Earth, but our black opals are, in all modesty, superior to those of Australia and what was once called Czechoslovakia."
He had lost Ronny way back.
Dorn examined the ring appreciatively and said, "It is certainly one of the most beautiful gems I have ever seen." He handed it back towards its owner.
"It is yours," Marvin said.
Dorn Horsten ogled him. "Don't be ridiculous."
"But it is."
Dorn said, "See here. On Earth, or a dozen other worlds that I can think of, I could sell this jewel and retire for the rest of my life. It's priceless."
"Yes, of course."
Dorn shook his head. "We seem to be talking about two different things. I meant that this opal is extremely valuable and that…"
"It has no value whatsoever, on Einstein. It's priceless." Ronny joined with Dorn in gaping at him. Ronny Bronston knew precious little about precious stones but this one was obviously a gem that a Byzantine emperor would have been proud of.
Marvin said, a bit uncomfortably, "I suppose that this is the purpose of our getting together. You wish to learn something of the workings of Einstein before our admission into United Planets. What I meant was that in our society nothing has exchange value since we produce for use rather than for sale with a view to profit. So far as exchange value is concerned, the stone is worth neither more nor less than this shirt I wear, or this house which we are in."
The two Section G agents tried to assimilate that. In their time they had been on worlds with some truly off-beat socio-economic systems.
Dorn and Ronny looked at each other.
Dorn said, "Can you think of anything else to ask, immediately?" Ronny thought about it for a moment before looking at Rosemary and saying, "Yes. When we first met, you called me the notorious Ronny Bronston. Ronny is my nickname, but how could you have known that?" He turned his eyes to Fredric and said, "You called me the famed Ronald Bronston. Famed for what?'
Darlene chirped a charming laugh. "We're not as uninformed as all that. Of all humanity, you and one other Bureau of Investigation agent, Phil Birdman, are the only ones ever to have landed on a Dawnworld Planet…and survived." Dorn Horsten and Ronny Bronston suddenly went cold and hard.
"Not exactly," Ronny said finally. "The others were brainwashed. Where and what did you hear about the Dawnworld Planets?"
Dorn added flatly, "Their very existence is top secret."
Chapter Eleven
It all came back to Ronny Bronston.
He had been a First Grade Agent at the time when a small exploratory task force came upon the planets where the monkey-sized intelligent life forms originated. They had inhabited twelve planets in three star systems. It had been determined that theirs was a life form which breathed an oxygen-nitrogen combination, as did man, but when found their worlds all had a methane-hydrogen-ammonia atmosphere. In short, poison gas. It would seem that some other advanced race had completely destroyed them. It was obvious, too, that the race beyond the small intelligent life form was far from benevolent. Ross Metaxa had taken a chance and summoned the heads of state of the most advanced worlds belonging to the United Planets and revealed to them the true nature of Section G and how it had been subverting Articles One and Two of the United Planets Charter in order to prod mankind into all-out progress. It had been a mistake. It was found that man will not necessarily unite in the face of a common danger if his political, socioeconomic or religious institutions are threatened. Better dead than red, had been the American slogan back in the 20th Century when the whole world had been faced with nuclear holocaust; and the Russians had similar slogans about capitalism.
Some of the member planets had immediately dropped out of the confederation, and Ross Metaxa was afraid that if the story spread, and the more backward worlds found that their institutions had been tampered with by Section G, that they would desert en masse.
Indeed, the ambitious Supreme Commandant of the militaristically inclined planet Phrygia, Baron Maximilian Wyler, had taken off almost immediately in his space yacht and headed home. And it was soon found that he dominated Interplanetary Press, the news service.
Metaxa had dispatched Ronny Bronston under vague orders to do whatever could be done to shut up the Baron.
On the way, Ronny had become acquainted with Rita Daniels, niece of the dictator of Phrygia, who had dropped information indicating just how ambitious Wyler was. On Phrygia he had found that there was only one other Section G agent there, Phil Birdman, of Indian descent and originally from the planet Piegan. Birdman had accumulated information that indicated that Baron Wyler was eager to attack his neighboring worlds and to form an empire. Ronny had gotten in touch with Metaxa and Jakes and made arrangements for him to be named a plenipotentiary extraordinary from United Planets to the Supreme Commandant of Phrygia. The Baron evidently had some of his heavies out looking for Ronny Bronston, and Ronny wanted to throw around some weight.
