Oomphel in the Sky | Page 7

thought for a moment. "How did
Government House find out about these Kwanns here?"
"The Welfare Commission had people out while I was still setting up
headquarters," Gonzales said. "That was about oh-seven-hundred."
"This isn't for publication?" Travis asked. "Well, they know, but they
can't prove, that our given reason for moving in here in force is false.
Of course, we can't change our story now; that's why the
situation-progress map that was prepared for publication is incorrect as
to the earlier phases. They do not know that it was you who gave us our
first warning; they ascribe that to Sanders. And they are claiming that
there never was any swarming; according to them, Sanders' natives are
striking for better pay and conditions, and Sanders got General Maith to
use troops to break the strike. I wish we could give you credit for
putting us onto this, but it's too late now."
He nodded. The story was that a battalion of infantry had been sent in
to rescue a small detail under attack by natives, and that more troops
had been sent in to re-enforce them, until the whole of Gonzales'
brigade had been committed.
"That wasted an hour, at the start," Gonzales said. "We lost two native
villages burned, and about two dozen casualties, because we couldn't
get our full strength in soon enough."
"You'd have lost more than that if Maith had told the governor general
the truth and requested orders to act. There'd be a hundred villages and
a dozen plantations and trading posts burning, now, and Lord knows
how many dead, and the governor general would still be arguing about
whether he was justified in ordering troop-action." He mentioned
several other occasions when something like that had happened. "You
can't tell that kind of people the truth. They won't believe it. It doesn't
agree with their preconceptions."

Foxx Travis nodded. "I take it we are still talking for nonpublication?"
When Miles nodded, he continued: "This whole situation is baffling,
Miles. It seems that the government here knew all about the weather
conditions they could expect at periastron, and had made plans for them.
Some of them excellent plans, too, but all based on the presumption
that the natives would co-operate or at least not obstruct. You see what
the situation actually is. It should be obvious to everybody that the
behavior of these natives is nullifying everything the civil government
is trying to do to ensure the survival of the Terran colonists, the
production of Terran-type food without which we would all starve, the
biocrystal plantations without which the Colony would perish, and even
the natives themselves. Yet the Civil Government will not act to stop
these native frenzies and swarmings which endanger everything and
everybody here, and when the Army attempts to act, we must use every
sort of shabby subterfuge and deceit or the Civil Government will
prevent us. What ails these people?"
"You have the whole history of the Colony against you, Foxx," he said.
"You know, there never was any Chartered Kwannon Company set up
to exploit the resources of the planet. At first, nobody realized that
there were any resources worth exploiting. This planet was just a
scientific curiosity; it was and is still the only planet of a binary system
with a native population of sapient beings. The first people who came
here were scientists, mostly sociographers and para-anthropologists.
And most of them came from the University of Adelaide."
Travis nodded. Adelaide had a Federation-wide reputation for left-wing
neo-Marxist "liberalism."
"Well, that established the political and social orientation of the
Colonial Government, right at the start, when study of the natives was
the only business of the Colony. You know how these ideological
cliques form in a government--or any other organization. Subordinates
are always chosen for their agreement with the views of their superiors,
and the extremists always get to the top and shove the moderates under
or out. Well, the Native Affairs Administration became the tail that
wagged the Government dog, and the Native Welfare Commission is

the big muscle in the tail."
His parents hadn't been of the left-wing Adelaide clique. His mother
had been a biochemist; his father a roving news correspondent who had
drifted into trading with the natives and made a fortune in keffa-gum
before the chemists on Terra had found out how to synthesize
hopkinsine.
"When the biocrystals were discovered and the plantations started, the
Government attitude was set. Biocrystal culture is just sordid money
grubbing. The real business of the Colony is to promote the betterment
of the natives, as defined in University of Adelaide terms. That's to say,
convert them into ersatz Terrans. You know why General Maith
ordered these shoonoon rounded up?"
Travis made a face. "Governor general Kovac insisted on it;