bulks being floated across.
“We’re going to fly another planet,” Hazleton said flatly.
“You bet we are,” Amalfi agreed. “And pray to your star gods that we’re in time, Mark.”
Hazleton didn’t answer.
Carrel said, “In time for what?”
“That I won’t say until I have it right under my nose on a screen. It’s a hunch, and I think it’s a good one. In the meantime, take my word for it that we’re in a hurry, like we’ve never been in a hurry before. What’s the word on that mass chromatography apparatus, Hazleton?”
“It’s a reverse-English on the zone-melting process for refining germanium, boss. You take a big column of metal—which metal doesn’t matter, as long as it’s pure—and contaminate one end of it with the stuff you want to separate out. Then you run a disc-shaped electric field up the column from the contaminated end, and the contaminants are carried along by resistance heating and separate out at various points along the bar. To get pure fractions, you cut the bar apart with a power saw.”
“But does it work?”
“Nah,” Hazleton said. “It’s just what we’ve seen a thousand times before. Looks good in theory, but not even the guys who owned this city could make it go.”
“Another Lyran invisibility machine—or no-fuel drive,” the mayor said, nodding. “Too bad; a process like that would be useful. Is the equipment massive?”
“Enormous. The area it occupies is twelve city blocks on a side.”
“Leave it there,” Amalfi decided at once. “Obviously this outfit was bragging from desperation when it offered the technique for the Acolyte woman’s job. If she’d taken them up on it, they wouldn’t have been able to deliver— and I don’t care to lead us into any such temptation.”
“In this case the knowledge is as good as the equipment,” Hazleton said. “Their City Fathers will have all the information we could possibly worry out of the apparatus itself.”
“Would somebody give me the pitch on this exodus of cities from the jungle?” Carrel put in. “I wasn’t along on your trip to the King’s city, and I still think the whole idea of a March on Earth is crazy.”
Amalfi remained silent. After a moment, Hazleton said, “It is and it isn’t. The jungle doesn’t dare stand up to a real Earth force and slug it out, and everybody knows now that there’s an Earth force on its way here. The cities want to be somewhere else in a hurry. But they still have some hope of getting Earth protection from the Acolyte cops and similar local organizations if they can put their case before the authorities outside of a trouble area.”
“That,” Carrel said, “is just what I don’t see. What hope do they have of getting a fair shuffle? And why don’t they just contact Earth on the Dirac, as Lerner did, instead of making this long trip? It’s sixty-three hundred or so light years from here to Earth, and they aren’t organized well enough to make such a long haul without a lot of hardship.”
“And they’ll do all their talking with Earth over the Dirac even after they get there,” Amalfi added. “Partly, of course, this march is sheer theatricalism. The King hopes that such a big display of cities will make an impression on the people he’ll be talking to. Don’t forget that Earth is a quiet, rather idyllic world these days—a skyful of ragged cities will create a lot of alarm there.
“As for getting a square shuffle: the King is relying on a tradition of at least moderately fair dealing that goes back many centuries. Don’t forget, Carrel, that for the last thousand years the Okie cities have been the major unifying force in our entire galactic culture.”
“That’s news to me,” Carrel said, a little dubiously.
“But it’s quite true. Do you know what a bee is? Well, it’s a little Earth insect that sucks nectar from flowers. While it’s about it, it picks up pollen and carries it about; it’s a prime factor in cross-fertilization of plants. Most habitable planets have similar insects. The bee doesn’t know that he’s essential to the ecology of his world—all he’s out to do is collect as much honey as he can—but that doesn’t make him any less essential.
“The cities have been like the bee for a long time. The governments of the advanced planets, Earth in particular, know it, even if the cities generally don’t. The planets distrust the cities, but they also know that they’re vital and must be protected. The planets are tough on bindlestiffs for the same reason. The bindlestiffs are diseased bees; the taint that they carry gets fastened upon innocent cities, cities that are needed to keep new techniques and other essential information on the move from planet to planet. Obviously, cities and planets alike have to protect themselves from criminal outfits, but there’s the culture as a whole to be considered, as well as the safety of an individual unit; and to maintain that culture, the free passage of legitimate Okies throughout the galaxy has to be maintained.”
“The King knows this?” Carrel said.
“Of course he does. He’s eight hundred years old; how could he help but know it? He wouldn’t put it like this, but all the same, it’s the essence of what he’s depending upon to carry through his March on Earth.”
“It still sounds risky to me,” Carrel said dubiously. “We’ve all been conditioned almost from birth to distrust Earth, and Earth cops especially—”
“Only because the cops distrust us. That means that the cops are conditioned to be strict with cities about the smallest violations; so, since small violations of local laws are inevitable in a nomadic life, it’s smart for an Okie to steer clear of cops. But for all the real hatred that exists between Okies and cops, we’re both on the same side. We always have been.”
On the underside of the city, just within the cone of vision of the three men, the big doors to the main hold swung slowly shut.
“That’s the last one,” Hazleton said. “Now I suppose we go back to where we left the all-purpose city we stole from Murphy, and relieve it of its drivers, too.”
“Yes, we do,” Amalfi said. “And after that, Mark, we go on to Hern Six. Carrel, ready a couple of small fission bombs for the Acolyte garrison there—it can’t be large enough to make us much trouble, but we’ve no time left to play patty-cake.”
“Is Hern Six the planet we’re going to fly?” Carrel said.
“It has to be,” Amalfi said, with a trace of impatience. “It’s the only one available. Furthermore, this time we’re going to have to control the flight, not just let the planet scoot off anywhere its natural converted rotation wants it to go. Being carried clean out of the galaxy once is once too often for me.”
“Then I’d better put a crack team to work on the control problem with the City Fathers,” Hazleton said. “Since we didn’t have them to consult with on He, we’ll have to screen every scrap of pertinent information they have in stock. No wonder you’ve been so hot on this project for corralling knowledge from other cities. I only wish we could have gotten started on integrating it sooner.”
“I haven’t had this in mind quite that long,” Amalfi said. “But, believe me, I’m not sorry now that it turned out this way.”
Carrel said, “Where are we going?”
Amalfi turned away toward the airlock. He had heard the question before, from Dee, but this was the first time that he had had an answer.
“Home,” he said.
CHAPTER SEVEN: Hern VI
MOUNTING Hern VI—as desolate and damned a slab of rock as Amalfi had ever set down upon—for guided spindizzy flight was incredibly tedious work. Drivers had to be spotted accurately at every major compass point, and locked solidly to the center of gravity of the planetoid; and then each and every machine had to be tuned and put into balance with every other. And there were not enough spindizzies to set up a drive for the planet as a whole which would be fully dirigible when the day of flight came. The flight of Hern VI, when all the work was finally done, promised to be giddy and erratic.
But at least it would go approximately where the master space stick directed it to go. That much responsiveness, Amalfi thought, was all that was really necessary—or all that he hoped would be necessary.
Periodically, O’Brian, the proxy pilot, reported on the progress of the March on Earth. The mob had lost quite a few stragglers along the way as it passed attractive-looking systems where work might be found, but the main body
