Adaptation | Page 6

society that resorts
to make-work projects to busy its citizenry has something basically
wrong."
Joe Chessman said sourly, "I wasn't supporting the idea, just
understanding the view of the priesthoods. They'd made a nice thing for
themselves and didn't want to see anything happen to it. It's not the
only time a group in the saddle has held up progress for the sake of
remaining there. Priests, slave owners, feudalistic barons, or
bureaucrats of a twentieth century police state, a ruling clique will
never give up power without pressure."
Barry Watson leaned forward and pointed down and to the right.
"There's the river," he said. "And there's their capital city."
The small spacecraft settled at decreasing speed.
Chessman said, "The central square? It seems to be their market, by the
number of people."
"I suppose so," Plekhanov grunted. "Right there before the largest
pyramid. We'll remain inside the craft for the rest of today and tonight."
Natt Roberts, who had put away his camera, said, "But why? It's
crowded in here."
"Because I said so," Plekhanov rumbled. "This first impression is
important. Our flying machine is undoubtedly the first they've seen.
We've got to give them time to assimilate the idea and then get together
a welcoming committee. We'll want the top men, right from the
beginning."
"The equivalent of the Emperor Montezuma meeting Cortez, eh?"
Barry Watson said. "A real red carpet welcome."

The Pedagogue's space lighter settled to the plaza gently, some fifty
yards from the ornately decorated pyramid which stretched up several
hundred feet and was topped by a small templelike building.
Chessman stretched and stood up from the controls. "Your
anthropology ought to be better than that, Barry," he said. "There was
no Emperor Montezuma and no Aztec Empire, except in the minds of
the Spanish." He peered out one of the heavy ports. "And by the looks
of this town we'll find an almost duplicate of Aztec society. I don't
believe they've even got the wheel."
The eight of them clustered about the craft's portholes, taking in the
primitive city that surrounded them. The square had emptied at their
approach, and now the several thousand citizens that had filled it were
peering fearfully from street entrances and alleyways.
Cogswell, a fiery little technician, said, "Look at them! It'll take hours
before they dram up enough courage to come any closer. You were
right, doctor. If we left the boat now, we'd make fools of ourselves
trying to coax them near enough to talk."
Watson said to Joe Chessman "What do you mean, no Emperor
Montezuma?"
Chessman said absently, as he watched, "When the Spanish got to
Mexico they didn't understand what they saw, being musclemen rather
than scholars. And before competent witnesses came on the scene,
Aztec society was destroyed. The conquistadors, who did attempt to
describe Tenochtitlan, misinterpreted it. They were from a feudalistic
world and tried to portray the Aztecs in such terms. For instance, the
large Indian community houses they thought were palaces. Actually,
Montezuma was a democratically elected warchief of a confederation
of three tribes which militarily dominated most of the Mexican valley.
There was no empire because Indian society, being based on the clan,
had no method of assimilating newcomers. The Aztec armies could loot
and they could capture prisoners for their sacrifices, but they had no
system of bringing their conquered enemies into the nation. They hadn't
reached that far in the evolution of society. The Incas could have taught

them a few lessons."
Plekhanov nodded. "Besides, the Spanish were fabulous liars. In
Cortez's attempt to impress Spain's king, he built himself up far beyond
reality. To read his reports you'd think the pueblo of Mexico had a
population pushing a million. Actually, if it had thirty thousand it was
doing well. Without a field agriculture and with their primitive
transport, they must have been hard put to feed even that large a town."
A tall, militarily erect native strode from one of the streets that
debouched into the plaza and approached to within twenty feet of the
space boat. He stared at it for at least ten full minutes then spun on his
heel and strode off again in the direction of one of the stolidly built
stone buildings that lined the square on each side except that which the
pyramid dominated.
Cogswell chirped, "Now that he's broken the ice, in a couple of hours
kids will be scratching their names on our hull."
In the morning, two or three hours after dawn, they made their
preparations to disembark. Of them all, only Leonid Plekhanov was
unarmed. Joe Chessman had a heavy handgun holstered at his waist.
The rest of the men carried submachine guns. More destructive
weapons were hardly called for, nor available for that matter; once
world government