STRANGE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY OMNIBUS (16 page)

To make matters worse, the Behemoths also possessed a high level of intelligence. They had the ability in any confrontation with troops to distinguish the officers and noncommissioned officers from the privates and to target them with their spears. Hansen was aware of this and when he had realized the Behemoths were about to attack, had removed his insignia of rank. In this way, he would avoid being a special target and face no more risk than any of the enlisted men under his command. He had ordered his subordinates to do so and advised Colonel Miller and the other officers to take the same precaution.

None had listened to him. The lieutenants, brave young men just out of the academy, had had their heads filled with stories of valor and saw themselves as heroes. The rest had followed the Colonel’s advice not to do so as it would lose confidence in their officers if they saw them shedding their badges of rank. Hansen personally believed it would be worse for their efficiency to see all of their officers killed by Behemoth spears, but prudently said nothing. As a result of their false bravery, all of the other officers had been killed or mortally wounded by the end of the first two Behemoth charges, which the regiment had barely been able to repulse.

With their machine gun ammunition expended, and only rifle fire left to defend themselves, Hansen realized that the fate was already settled. He ordered the men to attempt to hit the Behemoths in the eye, but for even the best marksmen it would be an extremely difficult shoot. The third Behemoth charge easily broke through, with the men trampled left and right.

Hansen’s position temporarily saved his life. He was on the right flank, and the Behemoths after breaking the line had pivoted and surged like an unstoppable tide toward the left flank, trampling the men unmercifully. A few shots rang out, but most simply turned and fled. Hansen knew he could not aid the. All that was left was to order his men to retreat as rapidly as possible. They had done so, but Hansen knew their reprieve was only temporary. Once they finished off the left flank, the Behemoths could very easily catch up with the survivors and finish them off in turn.

Given the obvious difficulties in maintaining a human presence of Broma Three, Hansen seriously doubted it was worth it. True, the explored part of the planet held extremely rich gold deposits which apparently could be economically mined and transported by spacecraft to Earth. The mines were operated both by individual prospectors and by several large mining companies. After several reverses, the military had succeeded in driving the Behemoths out of what became the populated area by using aircraft. Artillery and flame throwers. The area cleansed of Behemoths was then hopefully protected by the continent-wide fence and a capital established at Broma City, which housed the necessary government infrastructure and the transportation facilities for shipping the mined gold back to Earth. Hansen doubted that the decision to colonize Broma Three would have been made if it had been realized at the time that strong winds and dust storms would prevent the use of aircraft for much of the year. This would require maintenance of the fence to be accomplished by foot troops on the ground.

Hansen’s thoughts were interrupted by shots behind him and some rifle firing. He realized that the Behemoths most have caught up with the tail of the column, and it was now their turn to be trampled. He thought of ordering them to turn and form a defensive line, but decided that would only hasten their deaths. “Retreat!” he ordered, “Retreat as rapidly as you can!” He knew as he gave the order that it was useless. Then he saw what appeared to be a gully or creek some distance ahead. Possibly, then men might be protected from the Behemoth charge by hunkering down to the depression. The Behemoths were so large that they had some difficulty in using their strength in confined areas.

Hansen moved as fast as he could toward the possible sanctuary of the gully. In the interest of speed, he discarded his stick and ran, suffering the pain from his ankle. Reaching the gully, he threw himself into it and aimed his rifle ahead, ready to fire at any Behemoth that became aware of him. Other survivors reached the gully and threw themselves into it. A quick glance up and down the depression showed him that at least twenty of the men had made it.

The last thing Hansen remembers was the sight of a line of Behemoths charging the depression and of firing a rifle at one of them, hoping desperately to hit it in the eye. He regained consciousness and opened his eyes. He was staring directly into the face of a Behemoth.

“I see that you are awake, Earthman,” it said. The pronunciation was strange, but the words understandable. Hansen saw that he was in the same gully. To the right there was a pile of human corpses, dead soldiers who had been trampled to death.

“We have decided to spare your life temporarily,” the beast said. “We have never had the opportunity to study you. We want to learn why humans behave as you do.”

“What do you mean?” Hansen asked. He was truly mystified. This was not the way he expected these monsters to behave.

‘Your behavior is baffling to us,” the creature said. “You come to our world; you kill us with powerful weapons, you drive us from our lands, you dig holes in the ground and extract a yellow metal that is too soft to be good for anything. You began shooting at us today when we were busy looking for food and had done nothing to harm you.”

Strange as his words were, Hansen realized that they had a certain amount of logic. From the Behemoth’s point of view, the humans had behaved barbarously. He had a thought. “Could you tell me what you eat?”

“Why of course. We eat plants and vegetables. What do humans eat?”

In a flash, it became clear to Hansen the reason for the behavior of both humans and Behemoths. “Let me explain,” he began slowly. “On this planet, you are the dominant life form. On Earth man is. We believe we are the only species capable of reason and that every other life form on the planet has been put there for our use and convenience. We eat some animals for food, others we raise and kill for clothing. In our past, we used to ride some for transportation.”

The Behemoth, Hansen could no longer think of him as a beast, shuddered with repugnance. “Eat another animal,” it said, unable to believe this.

“Even worse, there is an animal species on Earth somewhat similar in appearance to you. It does not have a high level of intelligence. At one stage in our history, they were slaughtered just for their skins. Naturally, when the first men from Earth saw you, they immediately concluded you were like the Earth buffalo, and could be treated just as humans treated the buffalo.

The Behemoth struggled with his emotions and finally regained his composure. “Now that you realize we are a species at least as civilized as Earthmen, can you convince the others of that fact. If we do not kill you but release you, would you return to your kind and tell them the true facts about us. Perhaps we can reach an agreement to coexist peacefully. If you remove that fence, stop trying to kill us and allow us to look for food in this area, there is no reason for us to ask you to stop digging holes in the ground and extracting that yellow metal.

Hansen wanted very much to live was about to answer the Behemoth that he would be happy to undertake the mission. But he simply could not, even to save his life. The Behemoth had been honest with him. He just couldn’t lie in return.

“I’m afraid it wouldn’t work,” he said regretfully. They would never believe me. They would think I had gone crazy and lock me up. It would be even worse if they did believe I was speaking the truth. They would regard you as even more dangerous to their survival, both here on to all of the humans on Earth. Because human nature is so vile, they could not understand that life form could behave decently to them.”

The Behemoth nodded his head in agreement. I am afraid Earthman that you are correct. We had already assumed that but wanted to give you a chance to tell us your views.”

Hansen bowed his head and waited for the words condemning him to death. He could not blame them. They would be acting logically. He only hoped it would be quick and painless. .He was surprised when he heard the Behemoth say, “All right, Earthman; we will release you. You are free to return to your kind.” Hansen was amazed at hearing these words, but the Behemoth went on to explain. “Killing you would not reduce the menace your kind is to us. And you appear far more civilized in your behavior than the people from your planet we have encountered thus far. It would simply be irrational for us to kill you without purpose.”

Hansen gravely expressed his thanks. He also pledged that he would never lift his hand against the Behemoths again, in the army or elsewhere, but would instead do anything he could to modify man’s treatment of them. The Behemoths cared for his wound, putting a poultice on it which overnight greatly reduced the swelling and pain. The next morning, true to their word, Hansen was pointed in the right direction and set free.

Two days later, Hansen stumbled into a base camp and was cared for by the startled garrison. As he had decided to do on his journey, Hansen remained silent about his conversation with the Behemoth, stating only that the regiment had been attacked and overrun when their ammunition was exhausted. He described the retreat of the survivors and told his sympathetic interrogators that they had been overtaken and killed. He had survived; he explained, through blind luck by being hidden in a ditch under the dead bodies of some of the others.

After a few days of rest, Hansen was transported back to Broma City and interrogated events on the wiping out of the regiment. To his satisfaction, they seemed satisfied by his story. After a short period of rest in a resort maintained by the army, he was awarded a medal for valor, promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and posted to another regiment. To everyone’s surprise, he expressed his gratitude but submitted his resignation, stating that he had decided to return to Earth and go into another profession.

Hansen was given a luxury cabin when he departed Broma Three on the first spacecraft that carried passengers back to Earth. He had already decided he would enter government service or seek political office. Hopefully, he would be successful in gaining enough clout to be able to modify the treatment given by humans to the Behemoths on Broma Three as well as to the various animal species on Earth. In his mind, there was absolutely no doubt that when comparing human beings with Behemoths, which species was more civilized.

The Earl of Brundell was probably the least qualified person in England to be named First Lord of the Admiralty. Nonetheless, he was chosen for the post because the British Cabinet concluded his support was necessary if it was to retain power. In making the selection they ignored the fact that the Earl’s sea sickness was so severe that he could not stand to be on board a ship, even one docked in the harbor. An even greater defeat was his total lack of common sense.

Brundell’s unsuitability for the position became clear within a fortnight of his taking office, when he ordered that the three new men of war to be christened be named H.M.S. Torpid, H.M.S. Turgid and H.M.S. Timorous. To the cries of outrage from the naval officers under him, he declared that torpid, turgid and timorous were all perfectly fine words found in the Oxford Dictionary, and he would tolerate no opposition.

Worse was to follow. The Earl decided that since French men of war possessed forecastles, the English would do them one better, with sixcastles in the bow of the vessel. This fifty percent increase in the height of the superstructure made the vessels top heavy, subject capsize in the slightest heavy seas.

Unable to convince the Earl of the stupidity of this change in ship design, the British admirals took the only course open to them. They ordered the men of war of the British fleet to remain at anchor in their home ports. Eventually, they knew, Brundell would leave officce, at which time they could scrap the vessels he designed and replace them with efficient fighting vessels.

With the navy effectively removed from operations, Britain quickly lost its position as mistress of the seas. First to go was the vital supply line to India. Bombay and Calcutta were evacuated as the British forces could no longer defend them from French naval attacks, and the British garrisons were withdrawn to the greater safety of Delhi.

Next to be lost was British naval superiority in the Mediterranean. The British colonies of Malta and Cyprus had to surrender. Gibraltar managed to hold out, but only due to the skill of the governor in purchasing supplies from nearby Spanish towns.

At length, the Cabinet was forced to face the fact of Brundell’s appalling stupidity and of the destruction he was wrecking on Britain’s vital interests. He had to be replaced as First Lord of the Admiralty. But how” The Cabinet believed it still needed his political support.

After considerable discussion, it was decided to promote him from First Lord of the Admiralty to be prime minister. Although theoretically a post of greater power, the ministers decided that he would do less harm there. The various ministers, they decided, would render him harmless by taking charge of affairs in their own departments. The sitting prime minister graciously retired to pave the way for Brundell’s elevation.

Little did they realize that in addition to being incredibly stupid, Brundell was also extremely energetic? Far from becoming a figurehead as prime minister, he grabbed all power into his own hands and began to exercise it fully, with no discretion.

What had happened to the British fleet was repeated in the country at general. Farmers rebelled at the mishandling of agricultural prices. Riots erupted in London and other major cities over the lack of food supplies. Bullion flowed from Britain in a torrent, and the Bank of England was rescued from bankruptcy only by the pawning of the crown jewels. The hapless sovereign locked himself into Buckingham Palace and pretended to be mad. In Scotland and Wales, demands for independence from England rose in a crescendo.

It was clear that if Brundell remained prime minister for much longer, the destruction he was inflicting could never be reversed. The Cabinet met in secret to discuss the best way of removing him. The time-honored means used to remove incompetent prime ministers, elevating them to the House of Lords, could not be employed to Brundell’s case because he already was an Earl.