Once a Greech Read online

_Herringbone_ had left the Virago System entirelythat Iversen discovered Harkaway had taken the greech along.

  "But you can't abscond with one of the natives' pets!" he protested,overlooking, for the sake of rhetoric, the undeniable fact that Harkawayhad already done so and that there could be no turning back. It wouldexpend too much precious fuel and leave them stranded for life on ViragoXI^a.

  "Nonsense, sir!" Harkaway retorted. "Didn't the Flimflim say everythingon Flimbot was mine? _Thlu'pt shig-nliv, snusnigg bnig-nliv_ were hisvery words. Anyhow, they have plenty more greechi. They won't miss thislittle one."

  "But he may have belonged to someone," Iversen objected. "An incidentlike this could start a war."

  "I don't see how he could have belonged to anyone. Followed me aroundmost of the time I was there. We've become great pals, haven't we,little fellow?" He ruffled the greech's pink fur and the creature gave adelighted squeal.

  Iversen could already see that the greechik were going to be Flimbot'sfirst lucrative export. From time immemorial, the people of Earth hadbeen susceptible to cuddly little life-forms, which was why Earth hadnearly been conquered by the zz^{iu} from Sirius VII, before theydiscovered them to be hostile and quite intelligent life-forms ratherthan a new species of tabby.

  "Couldn't bear to leave him," Harkaway went on as the greech drapeditself around his shoulders and regarded Iversen with large round blueeyes. "The Flimflim won't mind, because I promised him an elephant."

  "You mean the diplomatic mission will have to waste valuable cargo spaceon an _elephant_!" Iversen sputtered. "And you should know, if anyonedoes, just how spacesick an elephant can get. By Pherkad, LieutenantHarkaway, you had no authority to make any promises to the Flimflim!"

  "I discovered the Flimbotzik," Harkaway said sullenly. "_I_ learned thelanguage. _I_ established rapport. Just because you happen to be thecommander of this expedition doesn't mean you're God, Captain Iversen!"

  "Harkaway," the captain barked, "this smacks of downright mutiny! Go toyour cabin forthwith and memorize six verses of the Spaceman's Credo!"

  The greech lifted its head and barked back at Iversen, again. "That's mybrave little watch-greech," Harkaway said fondly. "As a matter of fact,sir," he told the captain, "that was just what I was proposing to domyself. Go to my cabin, I mean; I have no time to waste on inferiorprose. I plan to spend the rest of the voyage, or such part as I canspare from my duties--"

  "You're relieved of them," Iversen said grimly.

  "--working on my book. It's all about the doctrine of_mpoola_--reincarnation, or, if you prefer, metempsychosis. TheFlimbotzi religion is so similar to many of the earlier terrestrialtheologies--Hindu, Greek, Egyptian, Southern Californian--that sometimesone is almost tempted to stop and wonder if simplicity is not theessence of truth."

  Iversen knew that, for the sake of discipline, he should not, once hehad ordered Harkaway to his cabin, stop to bandy words, but he was achronic word-bandier, having inherited the trait from his stalwartViking ancestors. "How can you have learned all about their religion,their doctrine of reincarnation, in just four ridiculously short weeks?"

  "It's a gift," Harkaway said modestly.

  "Go to your cabin, sir! No, wait a moment!" For, suddenly overcome by astrange, warm, utterly repulsive emotion, Iversen pointed a quiveringfinger at the caterpillar. "Did you bring along the proper food forthat--that thing? Can't have him starving, you know," he added gruffly.After all, he was a humane man, he told himself; it wasn't that he foundthe creature tugging at his heart-strings, or anything like that.

  "Oh, he'll eat anything we eat, sir. As long as it's not meat. All thespecies on Flimbot are herbivores. I can't figure out whether theFlimbotzik themselves are vegetarians because they practice _mpoola_, orpractice _mpoola_ because they're--"

  "I don't want to hear another word about _mpoola_ or about Flimbot!"Iversen yelled. "Get out of here! And stay away from the library!"

  "I have already exhausted its painfully limited resources, sir."Harkaway saluted with grace and withdrew to his cabin, wearing thegreech like an affectionate lei about his neck.

  * * * * *

  Iverson heard no more about _mpoola_ from Harkaway--who, though he didnot remain confined to his cabin when he had pursuits to pursue in otherparts of the ship, at least had the tact to keep out of the captain'sway as much as possible--but the rest of his men seemed able to talk ofnothing else. The voyage back from a star system was always longer inrelative terms than the voyage out, because the thrill of new worlds toexplore was gone; already anticipating boredom, the men were ripe foralmost any distraction.

  On one return voyage, the whole crew had set itself to the study ofHittite with very creditable results. On another, they had all devotedthemselves to the ancient art of alchemy, and, after nearly blowing upthe ship, had come up with an elixir which, although not thequintessence--as they had, in their initial enthusiasm, alleged--provedto be an effective cure for hiccups. Patented under the name ofHerringbone Hiccup Shoo, it brought each one of them an income whichwould have been enough to support them in more than modest comfort forthe rest of their lives.

  However, the adventurous life seemed to exert an irresistible lure uponthem and they all shipped upon the _Herringbone_ again--much to thecaptain's dismay, for he had hoped for a fresh start with a new crewand there seemed to be no way of getting rid of them short of reachingretirement age.

  The men weren't quite ready to accept _mpoola_ as a practicalreligion--Harkaway hadn't finished his book yet--but as something veryclose to it. The concept of reincarnation had always been very appealingto the human mind, which would rather have envisaged itself perpetuatedin the body of a cockroach than vanishing completely into nothingness.

  "It's all so logical, sir," the first officer told Iversen. "Theindividuality or the soul or the psyche--however you want to look atit--starts the essentially simple cycle of life as a greech--"

  "Why as a greech?" Iversen asked, humoring him for the moment. "Thereare lower life-forms on Flimbot."

  "I don't know." The first officer sounded almost testy. "That's whereHarkaway starts the progression."

  "Harkaway! Is there no escaping that cretin's name?"

  "Sir," said the first officer, "may I speak frankly?"

  "No," Iversen said, "you may not."

  "Your skepticism arises less from disbelief than from the fact that youare jealous of Harkaway because it was he who made the great discovery,not you."

  "Which great discovery?" Iversen asked, sneering to conceal his hurt atbeing so overwhelmingly misunderstood. "Flimbot or _mpoola_?"

  "Both," the first officer said. "You refuse to accept the fact that thishitherto incompetent youth has at last blossomed forth in the lambentcolors of genius, just as the worthy greech becomes a zkoort, and theclean-living zkoort in his turn passes on to the next higher plane ofexistence, which is, in the Flimbotzik scale--"

  "Spare me the theology, please," Iversen begged. "Once a greech, alwaysa greech, I say. And I can't help thinking that somehow, somewhere,Harkaway has committed some horrible error."

  "Humanity is frail, fumbling, futile," Dr. Smullyan declared, comingupon them so suddenly that both officers jumped. "To err is human, toforgive divine, and I am an atheist, thank God!"

  "That _mk'oog_ is powerful stuff," the first officer said. "Or so theytell me," he added.

  "This is more than mere _mk'oog_," Iversen said sourly. "Smullyan hasbeen too long in space. It hits everyone in the long run--some soonerthan others."

  "Captain," the doctor said, ignoring these remarks as he ignoredeverything not on a cosmic level, which included the crew's ailments,"I am in full agreement with you. Young Harkaway has doomed that prettylittle planet--"

  "Moon," the first officer corrected. "It's a satellite, not a--"

  "We ourselves were doomed _ab origine_, but the tragic flaw inherent ineach one of our pitiful species is contagious, dooming all with whom wecome in contact. And Harkaway is the mos
t infectious carrier on theship. Woe, I tell you. Woe!" And, with a hollow moan, the doctor leftthem to meditate upon the state of their souls, while he went off to hissecret stores of oblivion.

  "Wonder where he's hidden that _mk'oog_," Iversen brooded. "I've turnedthe ship inside out and I haven't been able to locate it."

  The first officer shivered. "Somehow, although I know Smullyan's partdrunk,