More Than Superhuman Read online

  Rocquel scowled jealously.

  'What about Jaer?'

  That brought a reply.

  'I think he has already explained his presence. Rather than have any further words from him, I would prefer to hear your explanation of your absence.'

  Rocquel rejected explanations. 'Come along,' he said gruffly 'let us go inside.'

  * *

  There were things to do. The news of his return would spread rapidly. The men in control of the council must not be allowed too much time to decide what to do about him. There would be regents, generals, and their aides — who would he unhappy at the return of the hereditary ruler of the army. Before this night he must again be recognized as entitled by law and right to wield the scepter of his sphere.

  He took Nerda's arm gently. The move was calculated. He wanted to enter the palace beside her, his identity given validity by her presence. A year was a long time on Jana. Jana males particularly had short memories. He could not have planned his arrival better if he had personally made all the arrangements in advance.

  Rocquel had the tocsin sounded as soon as he reached the main guard station. Shortly the palace guard and the servants were drawn up in five lines of a hundred each. He addressed them in his deepest baritone, recalling himself to the older men, inviting the younger men to remember his face and body structure. He wanted them to he able to identify him under all circumstances.

  He felt a little better when that job was done and the people had been dismissed to return to their duties. But not much better. The servants and guards could be talked to like a schoolroom full of children. But not the officers. Not the nobility.

  He had a new, superior — yet not at all condescending — attitude toward these people. They were simple souls. He now understood how rapidly Dav and Miliss were rushing Janae into civilization by a trial-and-error system that attempted to take each man for what he was.

  The lower classes were given easy tests. Those who showed even a modicum of mechanical ability were soon placed on assembly lines, where they performed one action, then two, then several — but never many. For decades now some pretty sharp mechanics had been coming up the line, and from their ranks arose a new class — engineers.

  The officers and nobility were a different breed. Quick to take insult, they were truly impervious to all but the barest elements of education. They had been persuaded that being able to read and write was a mark of distinction, but they were never entirely convinced. Why, they wanted to know grimly, were the lower classes also being taught reading and writing? The resultant, infinitely stubborn attitude had made it necessary to have a different written language for the people — one the upper classes didn't respect — before the nobles sullenly allowed their children to go to special, separate schools.

  Telling the nobility of his return, it seemed to Rocquel, would have to be done at an all-male dinner in the vast dining hall adjoining the even vaster jousting room.

  * *

  About midmorning Dav at last felt free to put through a call to Nerda. There was a long delay. Finally an aide came to the phone.

  He said in a formal tone, 'The queen wishes me to inform you that her lord, Rocquel, has returned, and since he will in future represent the power of the armed forces, her talking to you might be misconstrued at this stage. That is all, sir.'

  Dav hung up, startled. The great Rocquel was home. Where had he been?

  The hereditary general had always been a male first, his every movement and the tenor of his being expressing the quiescent violence of his powerful, supermasculine breed. It seemed an unfortunate coincidence for Miliss that the deadly, narrowed-eyed Jana ruler had returned. Dav divined that, if a struggle for power took place, Miliss might be its first victim.

  After some thought, Dav phoned the palace a second time and asked for Rocquel.

  Once more he endured delay.

  At last another aide said, 'His Excellency, the lord-general Rocquel wishes me to inform you that a new law will be promulgated tomorrow to the council. He invites you to attend the council meeting which will be held at the slickrock rendezvous.'

  The dinner that night shocked Rocquel. He had forgotten the extreme coarseness of his peers — at least it had become vague in his mind. An uproar of yelling and jesting began as the first males arrived. More arrivals simply added to the pandemonium. Things quieted down only to a degree when the meal was finally served. Plates clanked. Forks and knives clattered. Males yelled a peculiar type of acceptable insult at acquaintances farther along a table — insults having to do with the jester's belief that the other lacked sexual prowess. Such remarks always brought bellows of laughter, while onlookers insultingly urged the object of the attack to prove his capabilities.

  Yet since humor always probed the abyss of a male's sensitivity to criticism, suddenly a word would be unacceptable. In a flash the aggrieved male was on his feet, ragefully demanding satisfaction. Moments later the two nobles, yelling furiously at each other, would stamp out to the jousting room and add the clash of their steel to the sound of the dozens that were already there.

  Shortly a scream of outrage announced the first blood had been drawn. In the presence of Rocquel the custom was that the male initially blooded in any way was expected to acknowledge defeat. Such acknowledgment meant that the insult was nullified. But the loser who felt himself still aggrieved could demand a later reckoning away from the palace grounds.

  It was of this assembled group of mad creatures that Rocquel demanded silence when the eating was completed. Getting it, he gave the explanation for his absence that had been suggested to him — a religious withdrawal, a year of wandering among the people as a mendicant, a time of self searching and thorough selflessness, of deliberate, temporary abdication of power.

  He concluded his fabricated account.

  'I saw our people in their daily actions. I lived among them, survived on their generosity, and can report that the Jana world is indeed a worthy one.'

  He received a prolonged ovation. But a bad moment came when he presently went into the jousting room, where the guests had drifted after his talk.

  A voice grated beside his ear, 'Your sword, sire.'

  Rocquel experienced a blank instant as he realized he was being challenged.

  He swung around as of old in a swift, automatic defense action. His blade came out, weaving, before he saw that his challenger was Jaer Dorrish.

  Rocquel poised, sword ready. He gazed questioningly into the dark, cynical eyes of his enemy.

  From somewhere in the sea of faces surrounding them, from out of the diminishing curtain of sound — diminishing as more males grew aware of what was happening — Rocquel was aware of a top officer speaking sharply.

  'Jaer — have you forgotten? You have to state your reason when you challenge the crown. And it must be a reason acceptable to the majority present'

  'My reason,' said Jaer in his deliberate fashion, 'is that story of where he said he was during the past year — '

  The officer who had spoken walked forward. He was grave, fortyish, narrow-eyed.

  'Is it a matter of misunderstanding the story or of rejecting it?'

  Silence had settled over the room, and the words made an echo into the distances of that cavernous space. The question visibly gave Jaer pause. His expression showed his comprehension that a to-the-death had to follow any total challenge of a noble's word.

  Abruptly he laughed and put away his sword.

  He said, 'I think I shall ask privately for a clarification. If Rocquel decides what I have to say is truly a reason for a challenge — then we shall have our bout. Perhaps tomorrow.' He thereupon stepped close to Rocquel and said in a low, insolent voice. 'Your Excellency — the coincidence of my arresting Miliss and your prompt return needs to be explained. If the two are not related — you will, of course, have no objection to my plans for disposing of her.'

  Rocquel said evenly, 'If you are operating within the frame of the law —'

  'The
law is what the council decides,' replied Jaer arrogantly. 'Do I have your word that you will not interfere — in view of my suspicions?'

  'There will be a new law,' said Rocquel in a formal tone. 'Within the frame of that law — I shall not interfere.'

  He walked away, leaving Jaer Dorrish with a black scowl on his face and a query about the 'new law' unspoken on his pursed lips. In his mind Rocquel read the thought that this very night he must attend on the human woman — must force her before any protecting law was passed.

  Yet Rocquel could not be sure he had read correctly even when Jaer left the party within minutes.

  * *

  Nerda was waiting for Rocquel when he came in. He was late, very late. As soon as he entered — and after he had nodded to her — she retreated to her dressing room and began to get ready for bed. He watched her shadow through the translucent door. A regretful thought passed through his mind that he should have given her permission to retire without waiting for his return.

  Presently he rejected the thought of such leniency. According to Jana law a wife could not undress at night to go to bed until her husband gave permission. She could lie down with her clothes on. She could even sleep, though that was frowned on. She could go to bed before his return only with his written permission or if a doctor stated in writing or in the presence of witnesses that she was ill.

  The rules seemed harsh. But Rocquel had read the ancient documents containing the results of studies made of Jana female behavior prior to the passing of the stringent laws, and there was no question. Jana females would associate with males only when forced. A female, unforced, would promptly move off by herself and remain that way all her life.

  The facts had been set down by amazed historians who named names and places. The truths of the long-ago experiments in allowing freedom to females were attested to by famous people of Jana history. There was no point in repeating the experience in modern times.

  Jana females had no maternal instinct and particularly detested their male children. It had been a sad thing to read some of the comments made by females during the free period.

  A male child will eventually become a Jana male — that most detestable being. And so any charming childlike attributes he may have are an illusion....

  Another female had been in favor of the race's dying out — because its continuance required that Jana males also survive, to which she was 'totally opposed'.

  What could males do, confronted by such females?

  They had done it.

  The laws were just and as kind as they could be. A female could complain if she suffered any ill-treatment — and receive an immediate hearing from a court. No expense was spared by the State to protect her from a brutal husband.

  In return she must do her duty by her husband and her children. Since she had no feeling about her functions, the law prescribed her exact routine.

  Obviously even the hereditary general could not lightly alter either the custom or the law. Nerda came to bed, and, presently he gave her permission to sleep.

  She slept — it seemed, instantly.

  III

  Miliss heard a key in the lock of her cell. She had not undressed. She sat up in the rough bunk and watched curiously as a manlike figure, waving a long flashlight, unlocked the door and entered.

  From the vast shadowy size of him she divined his identity. But not until he deliberately raised the light and beamed it into his face did she recognize Jaer Dorrish.

  His face, like that of all Jana males, was too long, too much given over to nose. But the skin was a clear reddish color and smooth.

  She was not repelled.

  At least, she thought, the Janae were a distinctly humanlike breed, for which — in view of the fate she sensed was in store for her — she was thankful. It did not occur to her to formulate in her mind the mental pattern that would activate a thought amplifier in the house where she and Dav lived — no help for her from that rigid mind, she decided.

  But she did have a purpose of her own, adaptable 'to this situation. It had been growing on her all day. The male stepped briskly across the cell toward her cot.

  She said hurriedly, 'I've been thinking about what you told me last night — your prediction that Rocquel would return as a consequence of my arrest And it happened. He did come back.'

  Jaer stopped his forward movement. He did not reply.

  Her next words quivered on the tip of her tongue but remained unspoken.

  Miliss was startled. She had an enormous sensitivity to small signals. He had been coming forward with that Jana male arrogance, his whole manner vibrating with the message that he would not be denied.

  And now he stood still. And the way he st0od telegraphed uncertainty.

  'Is something wrong?' Miliss asked.

  More silence, a sense of darker emotions. She was astounded. Jana males were reputed to have a peculiar calm humor in the rape situation. Both humor and savoir faire required expression in words, not silence.

  During the strange pause, like a suspension of time in the cell, she had nevertheless become aware of the night and the prison. A time had been on Jana when there had been no prisons, only a few compounds where 'enemies' were kept prior to execution.

  On Jana, for more millennia than she cared to recall, people had been tolerated — or executed. No middle situation had existed. This and similar prisons were actually a great victory for less harsh attitudes.

  So the sounds of a vast life around her were presently heartening to Miliss. She heard metallic clanks, distant throat raspings, Jana males snarling in their sleep, and occasional echoes of faraway voices. Sounds of many prisoners. The Nunbrid prison was large. It was filled with people who would be tried in court for their offenses and who were not subject — as had once been the case — to the compulsive masculine rage of some intolerable noble.

  A feeling of peaceful accomplishment was settling over Miliss. Dav and she had civilized these people.

  Jaer finally spoke.

  'I had a sudden insight — and I'm having another one.'

  His voice was strained, not really calm. She sensed in its tone an advantage for her. Somehow the situation was no longer as dangerous as it had been. This male was genuinely disturbed.

  By what?

  Miliss pressed her own purpose upon him.

  'Is that all you can say about the coincidence of your prediction and Rocquel's return?'

  'I'm still wondering about it myself,' was the grim answer.

  The threat was in his voice again. She rushed past it.

  'Don't you realize, the impossibility of such an unsupported insight — the odds against its baring truth?'

  For a tense moment in the unyielding closeness of the cell, in the darkness broken only by a flashlight that sometimes pointed at her and sometimes at the metal bars — and occasionally, briefly, at Jaer himself — she thought that he would acknowledge reason and dismiss the subject. But Jana nobles, she shortly decided in despair, were not up to her kind of strict logic. His mien told her he was accepting his intuition.

  For a long moment, while he stood there silently, her fear grew.

  Then: 'There's only one explanation,' he said slowly. 'Rocquel was in hiding with you and Dav while he was gone.'

  'No. That's absolutely not true. If you're acting on that assumption — you're in danger.'

  'Danger?'

  'There's a hidden force at work. It can strike at you if you ignore it. In fact, it probably has already struck — or how could you have had two insights?'

  'You're trying to alarm me,' said Jaer harshly. 'And a Jana male cannot be frightened.'

  'But he can think about how best to survive,' countered Miliss. 'At least' — she couldn't help the biting remark — the males I know always do.'

  Again silence filled the cell. The light winked off. Into that darkness and that silence Miliss projected what seemed to her to be the only possible explanation.

  'What has happened means that you've been p
rogrammed,' she said.

  'Programmed? I don't understand.'

  'It's impossible that you could have a second major intuition unless somebody had installed it in your mind under mechanical hypnosis.'

  'I just had it. It's my own thought.'

  'It's not your own thought. You're being manipulated.' She broke off. 'Don't you see, you couldn't possibly — being a Jana noble — have all by yourself predicted Rocquel's return on the basis of my arrest. It's too radical and fantastic a prediction. Yet it came true. And now another one? Impossible.'

  Once more he was silent. The flashlight was on again, its beam tilted casually, showing his scowling face, narrowed eyes and lower lip pushed up. He was evidently having unpleasant, calculating thoughts.

  Abruptly he asked, 'Why did you and Dav separate?'

  Miliss hesitated, then said, 'He was more and more adopting the attitudes and behavior of the Jana male — and treating me as Jana males treat Jana females. I had had enough years ago — but we were alone here, two human beings, the last of our kind in this area. So I tried to make my peace with the situation as Jana females have done for so long.'

  There was actually more to it than that. It had, of course, kept occurring to her that the frequent despair she had felt over Dav might in fact be the death wish that had destroyed the human race. She had fought against her growing embitterment, until, one day not too long since, she had had an insight of her own.

  Human males were, had always been, exactly as vicious as the Janae. But human women, having their own maternal instinct to satisfy, had endlessly compromised with the egotistical villains. The need for motherhood had put a fortunate — for the men and the race — veil over a woman's awareness of the impossible true nature of the beasts.

  Once she had recognized the thought, leaving Dav was only a matter of a brief period of rethinking her reasons, and convincing herself finally.

  Jaer's voice came grimly.

  He said, 'I didn't have my first insight until after I had arrested you. I've had my second one in your presence. So you're doing this to me. By Dilit, woman — '