The Science Fiction Anthology. Fritz Leiber
you get the native currency?” Clarey asked.
“We do some restricted trading with the natives, bring materials that’re in short supply; salt, breakfast cereals, pigments, thread—stuff like that. Nothing strategic, nothing they could possibly use against us ... unless they decide to strangle us with our own string.” He guffawed ear-splittingly.
One rainy evening a couple of Earth officers hustled Clarey into a hax-cart. A little later, equipped with a native kit, an itinerary, and a ticket purchased in Ventimor, he was left a short distance from a large track-car station.
He was so numb with fright he had to force himself to move in the right direction leg by leg. He gained a little confidence when he was able to find the terminus without needing to ask directions; he even managed to find the right chain of cars and a place to sit in one of them. He didn’t realize that this was something of an achievement until he discovered that certain later arrivals had to stand. He wondered why more tickets were issued than there were seats available, then realized the answer was simple—primitives couldn’t count very accurately.
Creakily and slowly, the chain got under way. Clarey’s terror mounted. Here he was, wearing strange clothes, on a strange world, surrounded by strange creatures. They aren’t really repulsive, he told himself; they look like people; they look like me.
Some of the natives seemed to be staring at him. His heart began to beat loudly. Could they hear it? Did their hearts beat the same way? Was their hearing more acute than his? The tapes had seemed so full of information; now he saw how full of holes they’d been. Then he noticed that the natives were staring at each other. His heart quieted. Only a local custom. After a while, little conversational groups formed. No one spoke to him, for he spoke to no one. He was not yet ready to thrust himself upon them; he had enough to do to reach his destination successfully.
He tried to follow the conversations for practice and to keep his mind off his fears. The male next to him was talking to the male opposite about the weather and its effect on the sirtles. The three females on his other side were telling each other how their respective offspring were doing in school. Some voices he couldn’t identify with owners were complaining how much sagor and titulwirt cost these days. I don’t know why the government is so worried, he thought; they’re not really very human at all.
The chain had been scheduled to reach the end of its run in three hours. It took closer to five. He got off at what would have been around midnight on Earth, and the terminus where he was supposed to take the next chain was almost empty of people, completely empty of cars. Although it was still a few minutes before his car was due, he was worried. Finally, he approached a native.
“Is this—is this not where the 39:12 to Zrig is destined to appear?” he asked, conscious as he uttered Vangtort aloud for the first time that his phrasing was not entirely colloquial.
The native stared at him with small pale eyes and bit his middle finger. “Stranger, eh?” he asked in a small pale voice.
“Yes.” The native waited. “I come from Ventimor,” Clarey told him. Nosy native, he thought furiously; prying primitive.
“You don’t hafta shout,” the native said. “I’m not deef.”
Clarey realized what he hadn’t noted consciously before—the natives spoke much more softly than Earthmen. Local custom two.
“You’ll be finding things a lot different here in Vangtor,” the native told him. “Livelier, more up to date. F’rinstance, do the cars always run on time in Ventimor?”
“Yes,” Clarey said firmly.
“Well, they don’t here. Know why? That’s because we’ve got more’n one chain of ‘em.” He made a noise like a wounded turshi. He was laughing.
Clarey smiled until his gums ached. “About the 39:12? It is rather important to me, as I understand the next chain does not leave for several days.”
The native lifted a chronometer hanging around his neck. “Ought to get in around 40 or so,” he said. “Whyn’t you get yourself a female or a bite to eat?” He waved his hand toward the two trade booths that were still open for business.
Clarey was very hungry. But, as he got near the food booth, the stench and the sight of the utensils were too much for him. He went back to the carways and sat huddled on a banquette until his chain came in at 40:91.
The car he picked was empty, so he stretched out on the seat and slept until it got to Zrig, very early in the morning. When he got out, day was dawning and a food booth hadn’t had time to accumulate odors so he climbed to one of the perches and pointed to something that looked like a lopsided pie and something else that looked like coffee. Neither was what it appeared to be, but the pseudo-pie was edible and the pseudo-coffee was good. Somehow, the food seemed to diminish his fright; it made the world less strange.
“Where you going, stranger?” the native asked, resting his arms on the top of the booth.
“Katund,” Clarey said. The other looked puzzled. “It is a village near Zrig.”
“That a fact?” The native bit his little finger. “You look like a city feller to me.”
“That is correct,” Clarey said patiently. “I come from Qytet. It is a place of some size.” He waited a decent interval before collapsing his smile.
“Now, why would a smart-looking young fellow like you want to go to a place like this Katund, eh?”
Clarey started to shrug, then remembered that was not a Damorlant gesture. “I have received employment there.”
“I should think you’d be able to do better’n that.” The native nibbled at his thumb. “What did you say you worked at?”
“I didn’t. I am a librarian.”
The native turned away and began to rinse his utensils. “In that case, I guess Katund’s as good a place as any.”
Surely, Clarey thought, even a Damorlant would at this point rise up and smite the food merchant with one of his own platters. Then he forgot his anger in apprehension. What in the name of whatever gods they worshipped on this planet could a librarian possibly be?
He got up and was about to go. Then he remembered to be friendly and outgoing. “I have never tasted better food,” he told the native. “Not even in Barshwat.”
The native picked up the coin Clarey had left by way of tip and bit it. Apparently it passed the test. “Stop here next time you’re passing this way,” he advised, “and I’ll really serve you something to write home about!”
The omnibus for Katund proved to be nothing but a large cart drawn by a team of hax. Clarey waited for internal manifestations as he rode. None came. I’ve found my land legs, he thought, or, rather, my land stomach. And with the hax jogging along the quiet lanes of Vangtor, he found himself almost at peace.
Earth was completely urbanized: there were the great metropolises; there were the parks; there were the oceans. That was all. So to him the Vangtort countryside looked like a huge park, with grass and trees and flowers that were slightly unrealistic in color, but beautiful just the same—even more, perhaps. It was idyllic. There’s bound to be some catch, he thought.
The other passengers, who’d been talking together in low tones, turned toward Clarey. “You’ll be the new librarian, I take it?” the tallest observed. He was a bulky creature, wearing a rich but sober cloak that came down to his ankles.
For a moment Clarey couldn’t understand him; the local dialect seemed to thicken the words. “Why, yes. How did you know that?”
The native wiggled his ears. “Not many folks come to Katund and a new librarian’s expected, so it wasn’t hard to figure. Except you don’t look my idea of a librarian.”
Clarey nervously smoothed the dark red cloak that covered him from shoulder to mid-calf. Was it too loud?