Donald Moffitt - Genesis 01

starship? Did Penser intend to injure a tree?
    There was a respectful silence after Penser’s words, and then the gray-bearded man spoke again. “Next, we’re going to hear from gene brother Sard on the subject of combat techniques.”
    Sard was a brisk, stocky individual with close-cropped hair, dressed in the short robe and tights of Juxt One. Like Grome, he was in his forties—a good decade or two older than most of Penser’s new recruits from the Father World whom Bram saw about him at the meeting.
    “Most of the disabling techniques we’ve developed were meant to be used against humans,” Sard said. “But many of them can be adapted for use against the Nar. For example—” He held up a bottle of an oily yellow liquid. “— the Nar are just as vulnerable to corrosive materials as humans are, and if you splash some into their eyes, or still better, toss it down inside that nest of tentacles, you’ve got a Nar who’s out of the action.”
    Bram felt ill. On either side of him, Pite and Fraz were drinking in every word.
    “Of course, you can’t break a Nar’s bones because he hasn’t any, and you can’t kick him in the crotch because he has five of ‘em—” He smiled lewdly and got a laugh. “—without anything between ‘em. But if you can slash a limb across its hydraulic channels, it’s as good as breaking a leg. Now, a Nar has more reach than a man, so remember—when you’re fighting against a human traitor, it’s clubs and fists, but for the Nar, what you want is a long pole to slash with.”
    He held up one of the billhooks Bram had seen in the storeroom and feinted realistically with it.
    “What about explosives, brother?” someone shouted.
    “Not my department. You’ll be hearing from gene brother Hyd about that. But I can tell you that explosives are easily made, and you’ll be shown how. We’ll train explosives teams for the demolition work, but every one of you ought to have a working knowledge of how to make explosives out of common materials and how to use them.”
    “Aren’t explosives dangerous to handle?” somebody else asked.
    “Dangerous to enemies and deviationists, gene brother. If you’ve ever seen a being blown into small pieces, you’d appreciate what potent weapons they can be.”
    Beside Bram, Eena shivered pleasurably. “I’m going to get on one of those explosives teams,” she whispered.
    Bram looked over at Kerthin to see how she was taking it, but she was staring rigidly straight ahead. He couldn’t make eye contact with her.
    “Now, here’s an item that’s really effective,” Sard went on. “We used them in fights against the opposition all the time. Easily concealed and a good way to break up a rally or teach someone a lesson.”
    He held up a flat gray case shaped to fit a human hand. There was a glint of metal at one end, a ring of short little rods.
    “A touch of high voltage that’ll knock your back teeth out or turn a Nar into a limp rag. I won’t tell you how we got to test one on a Nar except to say that the test subject never told the rest of the decaboos that these things exist. Oh, yes, and they’re very good for interrogation, too, when you apply them to the right places. We only brought a few of these with us, but they’re not hard to make. Somebody here promised to look into getting hold of a supply of microcapacitors.”
    He looked questioningly at the gray-bearded man.
    “Ah, yes,” the gray-bearded Juxtian said. “Pite, what have you to report?”
    Pite stood up and struck an indolent pose. “It’ll take a couple more days. We’ve got an inside man at one of the transshipping points. The next shipment to go through will just disappear.”
    “Can it be done without arousing suspicion?” the Juxtian asked.
    “No problem,” Pite said, and sat down.
    The meeting lasted until well into the sleeping period. There were going to be a lot of red-eyed humans going to work or other pursuits in the morning. Bram sat through the so-called training sessions with mounting horror and revulsion. They were acting as if it were some kind of game, an interesting abstraction: ordinary-looking people talking in reasonable voices about hitting folks over the head and blowing up vehicles and throwing corrosive chemicals at gentle beings who had never done them any harm.
    At the end, Penser made a quiet speech, as if he were talking to each member of the audience individually. “Remember, a useful lie is better than a dangerous