Putkwyz Ch2 Fuel for the Body and Soul

2

Fuel for the Body and Soul

I had never ridden in a gasoline powered car; they had long been superseded on earth by cleaner, quieter forms of transportation. The fumes the gasoline car gave off were noxious and smelly, and the internal combustion engine made a lot of racket, a kind of churning throb, and when it picked up speed, it roared. From my knowledge of history and ecology, I knew that any species whose dominant form of energy was fossil fuels was doomed to destroy its planet. On Earth, the internal combustion engine is still used in racing, but it is fueled by cannabic ethanol, which enhances the race for all involved.

The car rumbled over asphalt streets, which added to the carbonic odor. Around us I saw Putkurs going about their business. Most were poorly dressed in ragged and worn clothing homespun from fupil reeds or kepoc wool and bowed to the car as it passed, for at that time in Saca only the wealthy could afford a luxurious form of transportation. The peons assumed nobility was passing. The proletarians walked, or if they rode, they rode in wagons pulled by arbezes or on public transportation: electric trolleys or steam-driven trains: the first was a clattering, shaking ride; the last, a noisy, sooty ramble.

Women were noticeable by their absence from public. This planet was ruled by men for men. Women were the property of and servants for men. Women rarely ventured out alone; if one appeared, she was accompanied by a man. Occasionally, groups of women might be seen shopping together.

The car stopped at the entrance to a bazaar, a marketplace for the merchants of Saca. Mawgri and I got out. Mawgri said something sotto voce to the driver, and then we headed into the bazaar lit by incandescent lamps that flickered and glowed sending a yellow suffusion of light throughout the mall.

Beside the entrance to the marketplace was an altar to a god, and several poor people in typical roughly woven tunic and trousers were lighting incense and dropping coins into a collection box. The blue smoke of the incense spiraled upwards and hovered in the air, giving the nearest lights haloes of smoky light.

I asked Mawgri of what the Saca religion consisted.

He said, “I’m not a religious person. Organized religions are repugnant to my spirit, although I suppose they have their moral uses among the illiterate masses. To me they are just organized magical thinking that leads nowhere.”

“What is the religion called?”

“Kandizam.”

“What are the beliefs of Kandizam?”

“Let’s see . . . I studied this in school . . . so it should come back to me. . . . Ah, yes, the central idea is that God [Zacon] created all Putkurs, that all Putkurs who believe in Him will be rewarded in this life and have a sweet afterlife, that all Putkurs should be good to one another, and that all Putkurs should obey the Sacacon, who has been anointed by God to oversee life on Putkwyz, and all women should obey their fathers and then their husbands.”

“Sounds familiar.”

“All religious mumbo-jumbo covers the same ground. Of course, the advent of the Stuwkreen threw a wrench into all that gobbledygook. How could the God of the Putkurs protect them from a superior species?”

“But you said there is a balance of power. How is that?”

“The Putkurs are brave warriors and have effective weapons: machine guns, flame throwers, rockets and missiles. No one else would want to tangle with them man-to-man or woman-to-woman. The Stuwkreen do not want a war with them; they do not want to conquer them, but they want to make them more civilized before their space-flight technology develops to the point that they could attack other planets. Already they have rockets that can exit their atmosphere. They have seen our spaceships and would like to buy some, but so far they have not gotten their hands on any.

“The Stuwkreen are encouraging education and democratic reforms. That is why they support the democracy of Kunwyz and also the Saca Empire because Sacacon is considered enlightened through education.”

“An educated populace will be needed to support both democracy and the new technology.”

“I know, but this planet is a long way from that. Literacy runs around 5-10 percent in the tribal polities and only 25 percent among the empires and kingdoms; education is expensive and exclusive to the nobility and priesthood. The democracy Kunwyz, which has public education, has around 78 percent literacy. Sacacon has instituted reforms: he is building schools in every town and mandating that every citizen go through a minimum of eight levels of schooling to learn the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic and science. Saca’s literacy rate has already climbed to 38 percent.”

“Sacacon does seem enlightened.”

“He is, but he is also an autocrat. Autocrats do not usually surrender power easily . . . at least in my experience and understanding.”

As we talked, we passed colorful stalls selling every item available in Saca: foods from the three civilizations, radios, phonographs, record platters, appliances, tools, weapons, ammunition, armor, office supplies, jewelry, clothing, shoes, hats, and pets.

Merchants had developed into a third class, below the traditional nobility but above the peasants and workers. Some, who had begun mass-production, assembly-line techniques in factories, were becoming quite wealthy. Others were forming businesses around distribution and selling of the new products. Others were making money from pulling minerals and fuels from the earth. Others were creating wealth from managing other people’s money. Others had become artists and writers. This merchant class had begun educating their children and represented 28 percent of the literate. The traditional nobility represented the other 10 percent.

The poorest, illiterate 62 percent were the ones for whom the new schools were being built. Some of the teachers for those schools came from the merchant class. Others were Stuwkreens who, after being implanted with translators and learning Putkeen, came for a salary higher than they could earn on Stuwkrik or the Putkwyz moon, called Huppof (Faraway Neighbor) in Stuwkreen but Putgiwyz (Little Putkwyz) in Putkeen. Even female Stuwkreen were permitted to teach, although they had to live in dormitories and were shuttled to the schools in buses.

Huppof was a bone of contention between the Stuwkreen and the Putkurs. Since the Putkurs had not had spaceflight capabilities until recently, they had never lived on that moon, although their astronomers had discovered that it had a livable atmosphere and seemed to be supporting life forms of its own. This information had been available for a couple hundred years to the educated elite, since its scientists had developed glass-grinding and constructed telescopes. They had even determined that conditions on the moon were perhaps even more livable than on the home planet. They wanted to go there but could not. Their aviation industry had discovered the secrets of aerodynamics, but their winged vehicles had been able to penetrate no higher than the third layer of their own atmosphere. Now rocket technology had allowed them for the first time to send Putkurs into space and two from Kunwyz had orbited the planet.

The Stuwkreen, on the other hand, had long ago developed spaceflight technology. They had been leaving their planet for hundreds of years, had sent robotic probes first to both Putkwyz and Aasheen, and then to their moons, and so knew that intelligent species already inhabited both planets. However, no intelligent beings inhabited any of the moons, not even Huppof, although that moon teemed with plant and animal life. Their first manned flights went to Huppof, which they saw as a relief outlet for their heavily populated home planet. At the same time that Putkurs were learning their moon’s secrets by telescope, the Stuwkreen were landing and developing colonies. Now tens of millions of Stuwkreen lived on Huppof and thought of it as their home. The Putkurs resented this because they thought of the moon as belonging to their planet, even though they had seen the Stuwkreen spaceships coming and going and knew others inhabited the moon.

On the more barren moons, the Stuwkreen experimented with terra formation. Most intensively, they were attempting to terra-form their own three moons, the moon of Aasheen, and the other smaller moon of Putkwyz.

Terra forming, as I knew, was a slow process. First came liquids and gases, then rudimentary plants that could live in those liquids and gases, then more advanced plant life such as stromatolites, followed by one-celled animals and then insects and worms. Techniques for rapidly advancing each step had been developed, but decades were needed before carbon-based, oxygen-breathing intelligent life could safely live on such moons or planets. (I remembered that we had taken three centuries to successfully terra-form Mars. Of course, it had been our first attempt—very experimental.)

“Here we are,” said Mawgri outside a structure that seemed to be an office building. I followed him in. We were bowed to, of course, and I felt the eyes of all Putkurs on me—a being they were all seeing for the first time.

Mawgri led me up a flight of stairs and we entered an office. A secretary in a white body suit rose and said in Putkur, “[Za Mawgri, welcome. Let me announce you.]”

“And my friend Za Malcolm from the Sol System. “

“[Yes.]” The secretary bowed. He spoke into a telephone and then led us into another office. After we entered, the secretary shut the door behind us. Ahead was a desk at which sat an overweight Putkur in a green body suit and a rose shoulder cape. He bowed to us and offered us seats before his desk.

“[Welcome, Za Mawgri and Za Malcolm, to Five Continents Distributors. Did you bring your cargo manifest?]”

Mawgri said, “Yes, Boleen, and I assume you can pay me.” He pulled a sheet from his valise and handed it to Boleen. “Here is a list of all that I have brought with each item’s cost and the total cost tabulated.”

Boleen looked over the list and grunted to show his appreciation. He inspected me with one eye as if judging my monetary value. “[Good, very good. We will both make nice profits from all these wares. Where are your ships?]”

“They should be unloading at your warehouses as we speak.”

Boleen picked up his phone and dialed a number and spoke into the phone. “[Have the ships from the other planets landed? . . . Yes? . . . Very good.]” He hung up and grunted again. “[You have done well, Mawgri. I have a list for you, too. These are things for which we have a growing demand.]” He handed a paper to Mawgri.

“I will do my best to bring all I can. But, I will need the money.”

“[Here is your check already prepared.]” He handed Mawgri an envelope.

“You are very efficient.”

“[And you are very dependable. You have never failed us. May I invite you to dinner?]”

“Thank you, Boleen, but Malcolm and I have much business to attend to and will not be able to take any pleasure this trip.”

“[Too bad. My favorite restaurant has a troupe of Diwok dancers. Very entertaining.]”

“Again, thank you, but we mustn’t.”

Boleen rose and bowed again as we left.

I said as we exited the building, “You said I would be licked, but no one has licked me.”

“No, since we are dressed as nobility, no lesser person would dare to do so; it would be considered an insult. Tomorrow you will be licked plenty.”

“How much did you get?”

“Over 200 million zees.”

“That’s a lot of dough.”

“Not bad for one distributor.”

“You have others?”

“My ships are landing at four distributorships in Saca and two in Kunwyz.”

“How rich are you?”

“Rich enough to do what I want, but keep this in mind. Much of trade is done on credit and honor. I have great credit and am widely trusted.”

“Why don’t you trade with other polities on Putkur?”

“I would be encroaching on my distributorships’ territories. Those distributorships make Saca and Kunwyz more powerful, and the enlightened despot and the budding democracy are the hope of the planet.”

“So you are a politician, too.”

“I understand the social implications of my actions.”

“But doesn’t limiting your contacts help your competitors?”

“Any competitor who deals with any nation other than Kunwyz and Saca would be an outlaw.”

“Aren’t there any?”

“Of course. Greed is not limited to any species, but the punishment is death for any Stuwkreen for trading with unapproved partners. It’s a risky business.”

“Why death?”

“If an enemy of Saca or Kunwyz gets more advanced technology, that destroys the chance for civilized exchange between our civilization and the Putkurs because that makes it more possible for an unenlightened ruler to conquer the more enlightened. Such an event would be disastrous for the planet.”

“Who is the prime enemy?”

“The Empire of Radimeer is the greatest threat. Their Emperor Kra has been building up his armed forces and threatening his neighbors. He has one of the largest military establishments on the planet and he abides no dissent. He hates Kunwyz and is envious of Sacacon. If he acquired a technological advantage, he would attack them.”

As if signaled by those words, several caped and hooded figures moved out of a dark corner toward us just as we neared the exit to the bazaar. I could see the glint of polished steel in their hands. As I looked at those closing in on us, I heard Mawgri say, “Draw your weapons. We have a fight.”

I drew my pulsar gun, pointed at the hooded being nearest me and fired. My target groaned and crumpled. Mawgri fired his laser and another of the attackers fell. The others turned to flee but were cut down by bullets from a machinegun handled by Luvark, who had been waiting and watching for us.

The skirmish ended within seconds of its beginning, and we inspected the downed assailants. The two bullet-riddled bodies were bleeding red blood into the tan dirt floor of the mall. Mawgri’s victim lay with a black hole burned into his brown cape and his chest. Mine had no marks, but he sprawled just as lifelessly because his insides had been scrambled by the wave of the pulsar.

They were Putkurs, but why they had attacked us was yet to be discovered.

Luvark bent over them. “They are dressed as Kandizam pilgrims, but obviously they are not. Pilgrims would never attack strangers.” He pulled back their hoods and capes and examined them more closely. “I think they are not from Saca, their scales are different, but they have no identification on them. They are strong, well-fed. Their weapons are the crooked daggers of Radimeens. They are warriors.”

Mawgri, indicating I should follow his example, stood and raised his left hand and said, “As are you, Luvark.”

I raised my left hand and repeated the words.

“We shall tell the Sacacon of your bravery and skill.”

Luvark raised his left hand in return and said, “We are brothers. Za Mawgri and Za Malcolm, I am your servant.” At that instant I felt a tongue on my wrist, just for an instant, a touch from Luvark, acknowledging our bond that I had invited. He bowed to us once again, and we waited for the police to arrive, so we could file a report.

While we waited, I bent down and examined the wicked-looking knives of the attackers; they were deadly instruments: wide wooden handle for the Putkur hand, round hilt and serpentine blade of forged steel sloping to a deadly point. They were heavy, not for throwing, but for thrusting the cold metal into warm flesh, and ridged to channel the blood pulsing from its gashing wound.

When the police did arrive, we let Luvark do the talking. Within a short time, we were on our way home. The incident was reported as an attempted robbery by thugs.


Luvark stayed the night in a guest cottage inside Mawgri’s compound. He wanted to be available in case another attempt was made on our lives. Mawgri sent him kepoc chops, taloos, rul nuts and nectar fruit, all sprinkled with slazza and served on a silver tray by the house valet.

End of Chapter 2
 
Chapter one identifies the protagonists and reveals their complicated relationship. Chapter two explains the situation on the planet Putkwyz.
 
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