The Earth-Tube (23 page)

“Americans are mollycoddles,” retorted Gun-Tar. “Your state is a weak machine, but already the strong, scientific machine is beginning to appear there to replace it. What of your big business; what of your factories for the production of oil and steel and clothing and machines? Are they run for the good of the workers? Is a defective part coddled and helped and sympathized with? Ask your capitalists, your bankers. How do they, aided by the feeble science you profess, look upon the parts of their machine?”

They came at length to the factories, where thousands of workers, moving like automatons among the machines they superintended, toiled day and night to supply the Asians with the needs of life. Many among them were slaves, King saw, Americans and Japanese and Europeans and others who had been trapped in the spreading net of Asian dominion and who had been forced to become the supporters of the horse-faces in their machine-government. The place was a bedlam of noises; reeking with chemical fumes and wispy vapors.

Overhead ran shafts and pulleys and clanking chains. Pistons sucked and pushed; “ploonk-yink. ploonk-yink. ploonk-yink.” The hiss of steam and the creak of great rollers made an overpowering sound. But the slaves never faltered in their work; they went here and there as stoically as the machines; they moved knee to knee and breast to breast, in teams, herded by their overseers. Whistles signaled them; the scream of sirens: “Ka-whoom! ka-whoom!” It was not unlike a factory King had once seen in New Jersey, where workers were forced to stand twelve hours a day in the sweat and oil to keep from starving-One worker, apparently an American, superintended a rolling apparatus near by. Perspiration poured from his face; his long and unkempt hair streamed about his shoulders; his garments were stained with grease and sweat.

“May I speak to him?” King asked.

The Mui Salvo nodded assent, and King touched the fellow, who shrank back as if expecting the whip. Not for an instant did he relinquish his vigilance upon the machine. He had been trained to think of his machine first; himself afterward.

“Who are you? Where did you come from?” King began.

The slave turned toward him in amazement, half frightened. He opened his mouth and pointed, meanwhile uttering formless sounds like the hysterical chattering of an insane person. Then King saw why it was that he had not spoken; he had no tongue.

He turned in anger toward the Mui Salvo, who was grinning, looking on in amusement.

“What have you done this for?” demanded King.

“The fellow had already spoken once too often,” replied the Asian. “Some, you will see, have also lost their ears. these little punishments are meted out to slaves that they may learn their place.”

The Mui Salvo laughed to see the horror on King’s face.

“I’ve no doubt,” he continued, “that many others of your race will be in this condition before long. We find that the quickest way to deprive them of unruly emotions is to amputate certain parts which may lead to plotting, combination, and complaint.

“Of course, we are not inhuman about this. If they conduct themselves meekly, yet with energy, obeying commands and never making complaints, they remain whole. It is strange how quickly they will respond to mutilation.”

King’s voice trembled with suppressed anger as he replied. “You enslave them, wring all the energy from their bodies, mutilate them, and cast them aside when they are too old or sick to be any longer useful!”

The Mui Salvo nodded, as a teacher compliments an apt pupil.

“But how can you keep them from killing themselves? How prevent them from ceasing to serve you by self-extermination?”

The Asian raised his heavy eyebrows questioningly. “Do the slaves in your factories kill themselves? Have they any more hope than these? Is not your factory system the same as ours? Less thoroughgoing and efficient; yes, I will grant that, but in intent and effect, it is the same. The fact is, my dear American, these slaves are cowards, else they would do exactly as you suggest. We have removed from them every emotion but fear. and that, since it is valuable to us in preserving order and getting work done, we have taken special precautions to preserve. Is it not true that your own factory masters have periodic intervals of unemployment and starvation among their slaves, to enforce discipline?”

“Oh, no. You do not understand. Unemployment is brought about through the working of economic forces. “

The Asian laughed aloud before King had finished. “Well, sometimes we call it that here, too,” he said.

Gun-Tar showed King the remarkable communication system of the Asian kingdom, by which every member of it, above the rank of slave, was. linked through a central board with those in authority over them.

“Every Asian,” said the Mui Salvo, “carries day and night a tiny communication apparatus such as this.” He plucked the robe aside upon his breast and showed a simple harness of fabric, upon which was fastened, in the hollow under the left shoulder, a small silvery disc, about as large and thick as a fine watch. At one side was a knob or button, which Gun-Tar pressed.

“When I do that,” he explained, “a light instantly flashes upon the central control at my number. Each individual in the kingdom is separately tuned, so that no one except he for whom a message is intended can receive it. “

As if to prove the truth of his words, a deep voice, seeming to come from nowhere, spoke suddenly in Asian. Gun-Tar made haste to touch the button and answer it.

“They wanted to know why I flashed,” he explained to King afterward. “Through the central board I could speak even to the Tal Majod if I should so desire.”

“On what principle does it operate? Is it radio?”

The Asian was contemptuous.

“Radio? Certainly no! Radio is too clumsy, too unrefined, too difficult to control. This is a force we have developed ourselves. We also have radio, but we find little use for it since these other devices have been perfected.”

They passed on at length into the biological laboratories of Tiplis, where chemists were at work with living tissue, trying to build it into different forms, seeking to understand the secret of it.

“What is the purpose of all this?” asked King, horrified and revolted at what he saw there.

Gun-Tar was eager to explain.

“True research never needs an object,” he declared. “We seek out information. Knowledge of any kind may be of use to the Tal Majod.

“As a matter of fact, we hope ultimately to isolate the principle upon which life depends, so that we may, in time, create for our own use living creatures to take the place of our slaves.”

“Robots of flesh and blood?” King was startled by the daring idea. “Are you not satisfied with slaves?”

“Unfortunately, no. Ours is a civilization which is most demanding upon its workers, so that we are continually pressed to replace the ranks of those who fall at their work. Hence we have been forced to make continued conquests, such as this present invasion of your own country.

“In time, it is clear, supplies of slaves from sucH sources will be exhausted. Mechanical robots are valuable for certain tasks, but they lack adaptability, however ingenious their construction. We are faced with the necessity, ultimately, of creating creatures of living tissue to man our machines and supply our wants.”

King drew back from his mentor as if he sought to avoid contamination.

“But surely you will never succeed in this grotesque attempt to caricature creation!”

The Asian smiled. “As a matter of fact,” he replied, “while of course we have not yet succeeded in building such creatures as I have described to you, we have already done some amazing things in this laboratory. We have, for instance, kept living tissue alive and growing for months on end. an old experiment, but with this difference:
that we have succeeded in directing the growth, directing it into forms never before seen on the earth.

“Then, too, we have succeeded, by various synthetic methods, in actually creating life. “

“What?”

“Low forms of life, it is true. But our discoveries in this direction will lead to even greater results in time. Biology is still a new science, even among the Asians. In your country it is not a science at all; it is still a kind of guessing game.”

“But what type of creatures have you made synthetically?” King asked.

Gun-Tar seemed amused by the question.

“Mostly microscopic forms,” he replied. “You will be interested to learn that we have developed, more through accident than design, certain new and rather unpleasant diseases. developments for which, certainly, there seems at present to be little use.”

King laughed.

“Nature seems to have answered your prying into her affairs with a rather grim joke,” he said.

“It is rather strange,” agreed Gun-Tar.

By evening of the fifth day they had passed through all the laboratories of Tiplis, through all the factories, through the vaults for storage of metals and gems beneath the city floor, and even through the spaces for foods and supplies on the upper levels. They had seen the marvels of the Asian science; they had discussed the Asian economics and sociological system. King had marveled at its technical perfection; he was horrified at its implications.

Should the horse-faces some day control New York, Boston, Chicago, as now they whipped obedience into Tiplis and the ancient cities of Asia and the Orient? The thought made him shudder. He recoiled from the touch of his Asian guide as if the very contact would inoculate him with the philosophy, the cruelty, the unemotional barbarity of his captors.

He had but two days more to live; and he was consumed with a desire to know of Diane and whether she had been able to deliver his message to America.

“What more would you see?” asked the Mui Salvo on the evening of the fifth day. “Now we have gone through all the Asian citadel; you have learned our secrets, and yet you have two more days of life.”

King appeared to consider.

“Wise One,” he said at length, “I have marveled at the machinery and the systems of the Asians; I have taken of their gold and seen their science at work. But a man about to die loses interest in such things; they do not touch him because he is certain that the knowledge of them will never be of use to him. But there is one thing that interests a man even at the door of death; it is true of all men, whether American or Asian; whether white, yellow, or black.”

The Asian appeared to comprehend. He grinned; his eyes gleamed.

“The Asian women,” he replied, “are of many kinds, of many races and nationalities. But unless you would be content with a common slave, I could not satisfy you in this respect; the finer women are forbidden. They are sealed to the Tal Majod.”

“Oh,” exclaimed King, “you misunderstand. I ask only to see these women, whose fame and beauty have even outrun the Asian conquest. We in America knew of the beautiful women of the Tal Majod even before the earth-tube came through the sea to overwhelm us.”

The Mui Salvo was both pleased and surprised at this information.

“They are indeed beautiful,” he replied, with the air of a connoisseur; “though love of beauty is an emotion we do not cultivate, it is more or less inescapable. Even I feel it when in the presence of beautiful women. I think that even the Tal Majod loves beauty, though it is treason here to say so; he would not care to have it said in public, and my tongue would probably be forfeited, if not my life.”

“Then there are a great many women chosen for the Tal Majod?”

“A very great many, yes. all over the Asian world they are kept, awaiting his call.”

“But how can he have time to see and love so many?”

“Oh, he does not. Frequently he delegates assistants to do that work; even I am sometimes sent to aid the Tal Majod in duties such as that. The Asian leaders must have sons and daughters; there must be new leaders trained to rule when we pass on.”

“And no matter who is sent to be the lover of these women, their sons and daughters are the true offspring of the emperor?”

“Exactly,” replied the Mui Salvo.

They were wandering down one of the main-floor corridors as they spoke, moving unlike prisoner and guard, but more like teacher and pupil, discoursing earnestly on this problem of renewing the Asian race. Craftily, King was leading his absorbed mentor in the direction of the colony of chosen women. He came to the corridor in which he had been attacked by the policeman on his first day and slowly followed the route over which he bad then more rapidly traveled, in the direction of the rose-lighted section of the city.

“There is one woman of the emperor,” King said,”who I have heard is more beautiful than all the rest. It is that woman, whose fame is great even among the Americans, that I particularly desire to see.”

“Which one is that?” queried the Asian.

“Her name, they say, is Diane.”

The Mui Salvo considered. “Oh, that woman!” he said. “Why, she is not beautiful! You have been misinformed. Diane was once an American, and like all Americans, her face is ugly, her body misshaped, and her skin too tender and white. Her beautiful teeth are hidden by long, ugly lips. Her flesh is unfortunately soft and rounded. Her hands are too fair; her breasts too ripe and pale. No, my young friend. it is the true Asian type that is beautiful. You should see their great square flashing teeth; their yellow skin, the brightness of their eyes! Many among the chosen women, even here in Tiplis, are surpassingly beautiful, but not this Diane!”

“Nevertheless,” replied King, “it is Diane I wish to see. Tastes differ in beauty, and in America she is considered beautiful.”

The Mui Salvo at this point grew suddenly suspicious, “What American ever saw her and lived to tell the tale?” he asked. “Whence comes this information? She was captured years ago, at the conquest of Japan. No Americans, except slaves, have seen her since!”

His eyes gleamed as he looked at King, waiting for an explanation. King saw that all the friendliness he had craftily built up and all his plan for seeing Diane again depended upon his answer.

“Why, my dear fellow,” he replied, “you seem to forget that the Americans have science, too, and many new inventions which you have not as yet heard about. Our penetravision telescopes
²⁵
see through your un-dulal, whether our shells can burst through it or no. Many expeditions have landed on the island here to study your race through the shell of metal with which you surround yourselves, and they have seen Diane, have learned her name, and have spread her fame through the Americas.”