The Other in The Mirror by Philip Jose Farmer

Author:Philip Jose Farmer [Farmer, Philip Jose]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi Collection
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Published: 2009-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

7

Sometimes, Hfathon came alone after breakfast to talk to them. Other times, Sha’ul or Ya’aqob came alone. Occasionally, they were accompanied by people from different branches of the government or professors of science, the arts, or humanities. Before entering, they asked permission, apparently to give the Earthmen the impression that the house was their home and so put them more at ease.

In the afternoons the Terrestrials were free to stroll or ride where they wished, within limits. Now and then Hfathon or Sha’ul would drive them through the tunnels to other caverns. There were forty of these, and a new one was being carved out to make room for the expanding population. The four went once to watch the excavations. Here giant lasers were disintegrating hard granite and basalt as easily as an acetylene torch burned paper.

“You have the same type of laser equipment, of course,” Hfathon said.

Orme nodded.

“When you do communicate with your people, you must tell them that if they send a ship here, it must not be equipped with such burners. Or with fission or neutron bombs. In fact, with any tools for waging war. We would regard that as a hostile move.”

Hfathon smiled as if to weaken the sting.

“We’ve now set up detection equipment and weapons on the surface. It’s a purely defensive measure. But I can assure you that no armed enemy vessel or missiles would get within 50,000 miles of here before being destroyed.”

Orme asked how the Martians could board a ship in space to check for weapons. After all, they had no spacecraft.

“Had is correct.”

The Krsh wouldn’t say any more about that, but Orme supposed that the wrecked ship had been repaired. However, if this was so, then the surveyor satellites would have reported this to Earth. Or had the wreck been left untouched while another ship, or ships, was built underground? And why, since the Martians could have built space vessels any time in the last fifteen hundred years, had they waited until now?

He didn’t ask Hfathon about this, but he did inquire about why the magnetometer instruments on the Terrestrial satellites had not detected the many immense hollows under the surface.

“We have means to give false readings,” Hfathon replied.

On the way back they stopped at a restaurant. As always, the four from Earth were given a table to themselves.

“It makes you feel unclean,” Orme said in a low voice.

“Which, ritually speaking, we are,” Bronski said. “But what’s the difference? We get the same food as they do, and it’s good. We also get a chance to talk among ourselves without being monitored.”

Orme said, “I’m not so sure of that. How do we know we’re not being bugged?”

Madeleine said, “But we use English. They don’t know that language.”

“So they say,” Orme said. “How do we know they don’t? Because they say so? Maybe that’s so we’ll talk freely, and they can find out if we’re planning anything.”

“Have you found out where the tunnels are that lead to outside?” Shirazi said.

“No, and it wouldn’t do any good if I did,” Orme said.

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