The Eskimo Invasion (48 page)

 

 

Dr. West blinked. "That doesn't look like -- It must have been taken
when he was a young man. What's that behind him?"

 

 

Mao III depressed one finger, and a photograph of what evidently was an
official report appeared -- printed in Russian characters.

 

 

"For translations from the language of imbeciles," Mao III said,
"the sound vocoder is slowest but will allow us to simultaneously study
the photographs. The inefficient vocoder should stammer a synopsis of
those items which are pertinent to Peterluk -- and to my question pattern,
which still is too diffuse."

 

 

His finger moved, and the mechanical voice of the vocoder howled:
"CANADIAN ESKIMO SELF-DESIGNATED PETERLUK. CANADA. NORTHWEST TERRITORIES.
BOOTHIA PENINSULA. ESKIMO CULTURAL SANCTUARY EXTENDING NORTH FROM -- "

 

 

Mao III's finger pressed. "Spare us these bureaucratic details." A blur
of documents and index numbers swept across the screen. "Unfortunately,
this computer is not capable of a direct answer to your amorphous question
as to what caused the Esks. This Information Retrieval System simply
flickers through molecular patterns of data, abstracting. My prod here
and poke there narrows its tentative synopsis until the edge of a pattern
small enough for a human mind to grasp is offered to me to guide -- "

 

 

A still photograph of an old-model nuclear submarine appeared on the screen.
The vocoder howled: "POLAR RESEARCH SUBMARINE KOLOGRIVOV. REVISED MISSION.
UNDETECTED INVESTIGATION OF TERMINUS METEORIC OR MANMADE ATMOSPHERIC STREAK."

 

 

Mao III pressed the button corresponding to the first index number, and a
jerky movie film appeared on the screen. Bundled men were clambering from
the deck of the submarine into a rubber boat. Another Russian-made film
clip, evidently photographed from the conning tower by the same hand-held
camera, showed the rubber boat bunting among the ice cakes. The distant
men scrambled onto the rocks and upward.

 

 

Dr. West finally recognized the promontory. "The Burned Place."

 

 

"U.S. HAD NOT SENT AIRCRAFT TO INVESTIGATE PSEUDOMETEORIC-TYPE FLASH.
THEREFORE RUSSIANS IN STATE OF READINESS FOR U.S. MILITARY TRAP ON CANADIAN
SOIL," the vocoder howled, and Mao III nodded. "This is as closely as the
computer approaches reasoning as it abstracts the pertinent essentials
from a hundred documents and offers us its synopsis with the best
internal reliability."

 

 

Film from a hand-held camera was showing bundled Russians walking gingerly
among large broken objects and nervously glancing at the sky, as if
expecting the contrails of USAF jets.

 

 

Rising from his chair, Dr. West shouted: "Close-up! Is there film showing
a close-up of what in hell those things are."

 

 

As if anticipating Mao III's finger, the computer projected a close-up of
a Russian hammering with his rifle butt at a huge dark curve. It looked
like ceramic clay. The rifle butt failed to chip it. The camera shifted to
another broken curve. The two might fit together, Dr. West thought. The
outside of each curve was roughened, darkened as if charred. The insides
of the curves gleamed white. A broken edge was thicker than the Russian's
hand-width. Like a gigantic mollusk's shell, Dr. West thought as a Russian
walked upright under the jagged upper end of the curve and turned and
grinned bashfully at the cameraman.

 

 

"RUSSIANS UNABLE TO IDENTIFY BROKEN OBJECTS," the vocoder howled.
"PLANNED TO REMOVE FOR FURTHER STUDY.

 

 

"Good," said Mao III's voice, "the computer has narrowed the available data
and is attempting chronological order."

 

 

The Russian film-maker must have whirled with his camera. On the screen
there was a glimpse of Russians scattering, a rifle was raised, and then
the camera steadied at a stocky figure clambering down over the ledges.

 

 

A closer view showed the young Eskimo holding out a white fox fur and
grinning expectantly, as if he imagined all whitemen who illegally entered
the Eskimo Cultural Sanctuary came to trade. Dr. West blinked. "I'll be
damned. It is Peterluk as a young man. Look at him grinning at that Russian's
rifle. He wants it so bad he can taste it!"

 

 

"ESKIMO ADMITTED OBSERVATION OF METEOR FLASH," the vocoder howled. "UNABLE
TO ESTIMATE DATE. CLAIMED TOOK NOTHING FROM BURNED SITE. AFTER REPEATED
QUESTIONING ADMITTED HE HAD BROKEN A SMALLER SHELL."

 

 

The film showed a Russian lifting a white curve, perhaps only an inch thick
and large enough to shade the Russian's head and shoulders like a huge
eggshell.

 

 

"FROM ITS POSITION IN WRECKAGE, RUSSIANS CONCLUDED REMNANT OF SMALLER SHELL
WAS INNER SHELL. QUESTIONED ESKIMO AS TO SHELL'S CONTENTS. ESKIMO DENIED
HAD BROKEN INNER SHELL."

 

 

The film showed a Russian carrying a curve of the inner shell toward
the water.

 

 

A long shot showed four Russians dragging a fragment of the larger
outer shell into the rubber boat. "ELEVEN TRIPS TO FERRY ALL SHELL TO
SUBMARINE. WHILE QUESTIONED, ESKIMO DENIED PREVIOUS OBSERVATION OF METEOR
FLASH. ON FURTHER QUESTIONING, ESKIMO ESTIMATED DATE OF METEOR FLASH AS
ONE MOON BEFORE BIRTH. ON FURTHER QUESTIONING, DENIED ANY OTHER ESKIMOS
ON BOOTHIA PENINSULA. WHEN QUESTIONED IF HAD OBSERVED U.S. AIRCRAFT,
ESKIMO STATED HAD NEVER SEEN AN AIRCRAFT. WHEN FORCE APPLIED TO ESKIMO,
ADMITTED FLOCKS OF AIRCRAFT DARKENED SKY EACH DAY. CAPTAIN CONCLUDED
SAFER TO CONTINUE QUESTIONING ON SUBMARINE THAN TO DISPOSE OF UNRELIABLE
ESKIMO WHILE ON CANADIAN TERRITORY."

 

 

The film showed two towering Russians smiling, their friendly arms draped
over Peterluk's shoulders. Between them, the Eskimo stood like a worried
dwarf, his white fox fur hanging limply from one hand.

 

 

"INVITED ESKIMO TO VISIT SUBMARINE," the vocoder howled its chronological
synopsis from what must have been Russian naval reports. "ESKIMO STATED
HAPPY TO VISIT INSIDE OF WHALE. SUGGESTED BEFORE GOING MUST CLIMB LEDGE
TO GET OUTER PARKA. RESTRAINED BY A RUSSIAN. ESKIMO STATED MUST TELL WIFE
AND NEW BABY -- DESCRIBED AS QUICK BABY SINCE LAST MOON. TWO RUSSIANS
RESTRAIN ESKIMO."

 

 

The screen was blank. Evidently the cameraman knew what not to film.

 

 

"SEARCH FOR REPORTED WOMAN AND CHILD INTERRUPTED," the vocoder howled.
"HIGH CONTRAIL OF AIRCRAFT OBSERVED. SUBMARINE SUBMERGED. SHORE PARTY
SCATTERED. ESKIMO VANISHED. LEAVING FOX FUR. HURRIED SEARCH FOR ESKIMO
UNSUCCESSFUL. SHORE PARTY EVACUATED TO SUBMARINE. ALL TRACES OF LANDING
ELIMINATED. CRATE OF AMMUNITION LOST. ONE RIFLE UNACCOUNTED FOR."

 

 

"Replay that part about the quick baby," Dr. West exclaimed. "Signal for
more information about that ."

 

 

" --IDDEN BY RUSSIANS DETAILED QUOTE: THE TREACHEROUS ESKIMO INFORMED
CAPTAIN GOGOL AND MYSELF THAT HE WOULD BE VERY PLEASED TO ACCOMPANY US
INTO WHAT HE APPEARED TO ASSUME WAS A SPECIES OF WHALE BUT FIRST HE
MUST BID FAREWELL TO HIS WIFE AND NEW BABY. WHEN I REMINDED HIM THAT HE
PREVIOUSLY HAD INFORMED US THAT HE WAS THE ONLY ESKIMO ON THIS SIDE OF
THE BOOTHIA PENINSULA, HE STATED THAT THIS WAS A QUICK BABY CONCEIVED
LESS THAN A MOON AGO. NATURALLY OUR DILIGENT SEARCH PRODUCED NEITHER
THE NONEXISTENT MOTHER NOR THE NONEXISTENT CHILD."

 

 

Mao III was pressing index numbers which had been projected during this
quotation from the naval report, and the vocoder howled inane statistics
about the Boothia Peninsula and the periods of the Moon. Mao III shrugged.
"Evidently there is no additional information filed in the category:
Quick Babies, Boothia Peninsula."

 

 

A still photograph showed men in white coats standing proudly in front
of a darkly oval patchwork reconstruction. Seen as a whole, the outer
shell had less resemblance to a huge mollusk's shell. Darkly charred,
it loomed behind the white-coated men.

 

 

"LOCATION MURMANSK. MINUS THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS," the vocoder howled.
"RECONSTRUCTION IN MAXIMUM SECURITY SITUATION. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS BY
POLITICALLY RELIABLE SOURCE. THEORIZE LIQUID SHOCK-ABSORBING LAYER
BETWEEN HEAT-DARKENED OUTER SHELL AND WHITE INNER SHELL. DUE TO HIGH
LEVEL OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN ASTRONOMY IN 1970s INNER POLITBURO
DECISION TO WITHHOLD ALL INFORMATION FROM RUSSIAN ASTRONOMERS. POLITBURO
DEBATE SIGNIFICANCE OF NO U.S. EXPEDITION TO CRASH SITE. PENDING POLITICAL
CLARIFICATION, OBJECT CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET. FOR MAXIMUM SECURITY FURTHER
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH TO BE CANCELLED. FILMS ORDERED BURNED."

 

 

"But impossible to keep a secret in Russia," Mao III's voice laughed,
"especially in the 1970s when that object fell, when Maoism was again
the wave of the future, and friends of China, old Stalinists, were
reemerging everywhere. As you saw, even the motion picture films, which
the Inner Politburo of revolving revisionists ordered burned, evidently
were secretly copied by alert Stanlinists in the pay of Chinese military
intelligence agents. With so much corruption in Russia, I suspect your
CIA also possesses ancient copies. But those who sent you here would
not confide in you, my tapeworm."

 

 

On the screen, microphotographs showed the molecular structure of the
inner shell. "CARBON-OXYGEN-CALCIUM," the vocoder overly condensed a long
scientific report. "MICROSCOPIC SMEAR LIFE SUBSTANCE INNER SHELL. POSSIBLE
HEAT-DEGRADED PROTEINS. DNA UNIDENTIFIABLE. DISARRANGED BUT POSSIBLY HUMAN
OR ANTHROPOID PATTERN. NO EVIDENCE OF CAUSE-DISAPPEARANCE OF THEORETICAL
LIFE-FORM IN SHELL."

 

 

"I am more free than my computer to theorize," Mao III laughed. "That
barbarian Eskimo, when he poked whatever was mashed within that inner
shell, probably sucked his finger. Then hungrily smiling he ate the
strange meat without a bellyache. I hope it was only the remains of a
NASA chimpanzee and not an astronaut."

 

 

"INNER POLITBURO DECISION BY VOTE OF 4 TO 1," the vocoder howled, "ORIGIN
OF UNKNOWN OBJECT WAS U.S. BECAUSE NO U.S. INVESTIGATION OF CRASH OBJECT
MUST BE PROVOCATIVE U.S. STRATEGIC HOAX, VOTE 3 TO 2. POLITICAL RESULT
UNPREDICTABLE, VOTE 5 TO 0. PROVOCATEUR SHELL TO BE DESTROYED AT ONCE
AND NO FURTHER COGNIZANCE."

 

 

"Even so, a beautiful hoax," Mao III laughed. "For once, you American
bunglers nearly were able to keep a secret from the Russians -- and even
from us. In the years since then, our friends of China at Cape Kennedy
and at Vandenberg never were able to collect reliable information as to
just how the hoax was secretly constructed, launched and deliberately
crashed. In fact, we never have found the evidence of U.S. origin. Do
not look so discontented because the CIA did not inform you. After all,
this CIA hoax was perpetrated about thirty-eight years ago, in 1971."

 

 

Mao III's voice was smooth as poisoned honey. "Even now, you would not
be informed of its secret historical malfunction because you were to be
parachuted into China, where the CIA still thinks we are retarded angry
children who know nothing. But I assure you that such a hoax never could
have been consummated, even in those days, upon alert Maoist scientists."

 

 

Dr. West said nothing.

 

 

"You are wishful thinking it was not a hoax," Mao III taunted, "because
your life -- your beliefs tremble on a pinpoint hope that something which
fell upon the Boothia Peninsula will confirm your monomaniac insistence
that Esks are not human. Murderer, you would lunge anywhere for evidence
of nonhuman origin to justify your hatred of the Esks. You would embrace
any obvious U.S. hoax. Always you would clutch false evidence that Esk
origin is from the sky, because that is what you need to believe -- that
Esks are nonhuman. Otherwise you would be forced to see yourself as the
rest of the world sees you, you convicted mass murderer. See yourself as
you are, monomaniac murderer, leave me, tapeworm. Go! Leave this vault."

 

 

"You bastard," Dr. West gasped. "You can't wear me down with talk. You can't
drive me insane. I won't have a heart attack because of you. If your spies
in America could find no evidence of construction and launch in America
-- of a nonmetallic object of large size -- I know damn well it wasn't
built in America. It was no hoax built on this Earth. And I'll tell you
this. The crash wasn't investigated by an American search party because
sophisticated radar would have told the Air Force it was not a metallic
object. It would have echoed radar pulses as if made of stone. Maybe the
Russian radar of that period was not able to discriminate, and they thought
one of our space experiments had fallen. Curious, like cautious vultures,
they sent the sub. Undoubtedly U.S. forces had crossed off the atmospheric
streak as only a stony meteorite."

 

 

"Tapeworm, don't you wonder why the fall-streak of such a large meteorite
did not attract an American scientific expedition?"

 

 

"I -- that was years ago, in the 1970s. I -- " Even in his heart-pounding
anger Dr. West realized from Mao III's quick thoughts that the orange
flashing light on the telescreen indicated a high priority telesatellite
transmission.

 

 

On the telescreen appeared a symbolic dove of peace, then a film clip
of a peaceful wheat field dimpling in the breeze, and a peaceful baby
smiling in living color, its arms outstretched to the world, then the
American flag gently waving, while the audio played: "Oh, beautiful, for
spacious skies -- " All this was an introductory film clip, a station
break via hundreds of U.S. Information Agency satellites sprinkled
throughout the heavens. Shielded from the jamming of rival foreign
teleinformation services, the U.S. telesatellites were relaying on all
eighty-two channels down to every square foot of the Earth.