WAR ON DAMOS

 ... of the people of Earth, we wish to let you know that we are here on a scientific mission, and that we come in peace. If you have a language synthesizer like mine, perhaps you can understand me. But since we know where the land probe and the main ship are sending their messages, we will soon come in peace to meet you.

 We come in peace and friendship from across the immensity of time and space of our common galaxy. We wish you long life and warm affections, and we offer you, as a pledge of our intentions, these first living beings we found on your sister planet of Unias, near your land probe.

   "Since that fateful day, we have seen all too many scenes like the ones about to be shown on your screens. We must warn you that there is much graphic violence in them, and much bloodshed. You will see much more of what you see now: bridges and houses blown up, children murdered in playgrounds and schools, shopping centers and open-air markets burned out by incendiary bombs. In town after town, in city after city, even in sparsely-populated areas, and in several cases on isolated farms, what is believed to be a relatively small group of STU terrorists went on a rampage, wreaking havoc, almost with impunity, for the better part of a year, once the campaign of terror began.
   "In the beginning, the attacks seemed to have two objects: first, to capture arms and munitions with which to carry on the attacks that we have become so accostomed to, and second, to inspire terror so as to incite the people to riot. The first aim was an immense success for five or six months, as these pictures taken in Eekuawlim attest to; since then, with increased security, fewer and fewer attacks have succeeded, and no weapons have been seized for the past six months: a perfect parabolic curve. It is believed, however, that the STU has been manufacturing car bombs to carry out its plan of mass murder, reserving its handguns and rifles for aiming at individuals.
   "The second goal, to inspire terror, also succeeded wildly at first, and for a longer period of time. It is only in recent months that a program of progressive containment has proven effective. At first, the primary targets of the attacks were people, such as those shown here, who seemed to favor relations with the Earth people. Many Damosians were tortured and killed in this effort. Once again, we must warn you that some of the scenes on your screens will be perhaps too graphic; we are showing them to reveal the horror of the actions taken. Men and women strangled after unthinkable tortures: their tongues cut out, their eyes burned out, their fingers and toes cut off one by one, then their hands and feet, and if they were still alive, their limbs. In one of the cruelist ironies of this war on decency, dozens of STUs actually filmed the proceedings. The scenes you have been witnessing, again for the first time, are official STU training films.
   "If you will pardon my dropping whatever objectivity this series of disgusting acts allows me to have, I must add that such acts, unthinkable for over 1000 years, at one point almost made me ashamed to be a Kolok. Fortunately, most people have been revulsed by what they have learned, and a large number of STU defections have occurred, while general public support for their activities has been declining precipitously as the truth is becoming better known. Many of the followers of Ogatrac, the Schadite leader, are right now being interrogated; others have given much valuable information, which has helped to drive the STUs into retreat. They now find themselves in a small area, closed in. But after these initial orgies of torture, their successes were increasingly violent and heartless.
   "Soon the STUs began to target public figures. Not just the officers guarding supplies and arms, as at first, but government officials and at every level, and ordinary citizens. The only strand uniting these people was that they had had kind words to say about our guests from the planet Earth, had taken part in meals, festivities, celebrations, expeditions, and the like, with them. Mayors of cities large and small, members of regional councils and provincial governments, principals of elementary schools, even leaders of community organizations and workers in every walk of life: no one was spared. Finally, the STUs hit not only main-stream congregations but also Schadite temples deemed not sufficiently supportive or not aggressive enough in their weekly denunciations of the supposed enemy.
   "The STUs' violence has resulted in the deaths of well over 50,000 people thoughout the planet. The number of wounded is over twenty times that. Their wrath and madness have known no bounds.
   "Look at this bombed-out temple in Ksnim. It was destroyed during a regular service; over 800 people lost their lives; few were saved. These sights have horrified you before, fire bombings of temples and sacred shrines, innocent victims. By a curious coincidence, the organization's leaders have been forced into hiding in the mountains behind Ksnim, which was for reasons as yet unknown the hardest hit of our cities attacked by the STU. Every day the terrorists can see their handiwork below them. We're circling and zooming in on the worst-hit of the schools... the playgrounds... the factories... the temples... the stores... the office buildings... the amusement parks... the government buildings... and countless private residences that have been destroyed by car  bombs, incendiary bombs, and other explosive devices. All survivors have been evacuated. Govenment forces have closed in on them. The mountains have been sealed off. Ever since several of the terrorists emerged apparently to surrender, with their arms raised, but then opened up fire on the police, every terrorist not waving a flag of surrender have been shot on sight as they emerged from their encampments.
   "Meanwhile, the Earth people have joined forces with the Damosians in exploration sallies to Unias and to the twin planets of Tertia Major and Tertia Minor. We will be reporting on the discoveries made in these extraordinary lands in a documentary to be shown at a later date. But already the public is familiar with the indescribable beauty of Unias, its incredible huge animals the size of which we had never seen, its other animals, including vast colonies of flying amphibians (truly strange creatures equally at home on land, in the air, and in the water), which you now see on your screen; the great flowering trees and the tiniest wooded plants ever seen in our part of the galaxy–and our Earth scientists claim that all these wonders are totally unknown in their lands.
   "We are also familiar with the strange world of the twin planets. Both have polar ice caps, abundant water, hot equatorial forests, and fauna very different from what we have on Damos and what we have seen on Unias. All the animal life seems to be relatively small, about the size of pet animals or smaller. Here's a darling, snuggly reptile. In the deep oceans swim fish and other creatures unimaginable for their beauty and grace. There is strong seismic activity on both planets, which seems to be a factor in the creation and maintenance of the atmosphere. Tertia Major is exceptionally dense: its gravitational pull is nearly 90% that of  Damos, although its diameter is just three-quarters ours. Again, we will have full reports on the wonders of our planetary neighbors within the next few weeks.
   "But we must now leave these verdant vistas to return to the subject of our documentary, 'The STU: the dark side of the Kolok.' Prepare your mind for yet more scenes of brutality and bloodshed, and for the as yet untold tale of forced drug addiction and mind-robbing terror.
   "Who can forget the capture of Dlawso, who under the guise of a friendly visit to the great ship Constellation, was caught just as he was to enter the teleportation area with gunpowder? A goodwill tour of the craft, just days prior to departure for the Tertias almost ended in disaster. And this was not all. One or two terrorists actually made it on board before being detected in the unfortunately necessary second searches carried on kilometers above us, in the sky. Here is a pair caught by a surveillance camera trying to blast a hole in the exterior wall of the craft; only swift work by the Damosian guards on board, who were racing towards them because they recognized them as terrorists sought for having blown up bridges, averted catastrophe.
   "While we were preparing this story, we learned, in an exclusive interview, of one of the most repulsive of the STU's tactics. We have been able to corroborate these stories by speaking to the victims themselves. It was at first thought that the incidents of addiction to DOP among the humans were caused by experimentation, a desire to try out something new. Their Kolok friends were suspected of procuring the drug for them.
   "Schadites somehow managed to deliver high doses of DOP to Earth people and their Kolok friends in various parts of the planet, and even on Constellation while it was on its mission to Unias. The spaceship's water purification chamber had been broken into, and several kilograms of DOP were dumped in the central filtration vat.
   "We all know only too well why this is a banned drug. It is so highly addictive that a single dose usually causes apparently incurable addictions in susceptible people, and even the most resistant fall under its spell after only five or six doses.
   "Because of differences in brain structure, it affects humans more acutely than Kolok, but both have similar symptoms: extreme pleasure in everything, friendly to all when high; a high that lasts for hours, in some cases for days; but when need for more arises, humans become aggressive and violent, Kolok submissive and impassive; in both cases, portions of the brain are gradually eaten away.
   "Here is some file footage of addicts during their initial periods of euphoria. Here we see them unable to act, easy prey for thieves and drug suppliers. What they don't know is that entire centers of cranial activity gradually cease to exist. They lose their memory, then control of their muscles, finally their lives. Over 6000 victims, many of them young people, die from this horrible addiction every year.
   "On board Constellation, and on the ground in Unias, many Kolok and scores of humans were poisoned by the DOP before the source was discovered and the drug neutralized (for on these ships everything is recycled). The result was predictable; the ship's medical facilities were strained to capacity, and the aggressivity of the humans required many of them to be restrained. Upon consultation with Damosian officials, it was decided to cut the expedition short and to return to Damos.
   "I promised you a story about rejuvenation. Here it is. The Kolok and the humans on the surface were teleported to the spaceship, to be rushed to hospitals on Damos, where new treatments were being tested. But on reaching the "Den" or teleporting room, they were found to be cured! No more symptoms, neither the intense euphoria nor the subsequent impassivity or extreme aggressiveness. For reasons not fully understood, the teleportation process somehow prevented the further porogress of the drug's destructive path. However, brain damage was not reversed in transit, so that the damage already wrought has been irreversible. Two of the most severely injured victims are currently undergoing experimental operations to rebuild part of the brain cells, using frog nerves and magnetic therapy, with equipment manufactured in Bobol. We will have an interview with Dr. Iborian, who is pioneering this procedure, as soon as she is available for an on-screen interview.
   "The Earth people experienced identical relief. They are now undergoing similar treatment under the supervision of Dr. Mujama. Plans are underway to expose all other victims of the drug to teleportation. A miracle cure might have been fortuitously found for this devastating addiction.
   "What about the perpetrators of the crime? They are currently in solitary confinement in Hell's Portal. They have adamantly refused to say where they procured this drug, how they were able to carry it on board, and why they chose to use it at the time they did."

   The program was abruptly interrupted at this point. Dab Retsnum came on camera, and said tersely:
   "I have just been told that there is an important new development in the ongoing battle against the STU. We interrupt our planned broadcast to bring you Sinng Stoarn in Olso."

   "This is Sinng Stoarn in Olso. I am standing outside the ruins of the upscale Triumph Restaurant in this city, where it is now 2 p.m. About an hour ago a car illegally parked outside the restaurant exploded, detonating a powerful bomb. Officials contained the ensuing fire rapidly, but few survivors could be found. The detonation in the car caused a secondary detonation of a bomb placed in a lavatory near the rear of the building, leaving little place for people to find cover.
   "A stretcher is passing before me as I speak. By Oarrn! I would swear that this man is High Bishop Nilreb of the Holy Brotherhood of Schad! ...Excuse me, excuse me, Medic, do you know who this victim is?"
   "Please step aside, Ma'am. We have to rush this person to the hospital. He's one of the few still alive."
   "Another stretcher. This looks like High Commissioner Ylro! ...Medic, is the High Commissioner alive?"
   "I don't know anything about the High Commissioner, Lady. This person is severely hurt. Let us get by, please!"
   "I have covered news events with both of these men so many times that I can recognize them as easily as my own image. Why would they have come to this city? The usual entourage of official cars is absent. Were they meeting each other here? What is going on?"
   "Sinng, we have a call for you on the phone. The caller claims to be Bishop Ogatrac."
   "It must be a hoax. Hello. This is Sinng Stoarn speaking."
   "Sinng Stoarn. This is Ogatrac. I have an important message for you and your public."
   "Your voice sounds like Bishop Ogatrac's, but he is said to be with his followers in the hills above Ksnim."
   "I was there two days ago, but the governement can't hold me. Listen. I don't want to spend much time with you. I do want to let you know that I personally set off the two explosives you spoke of. My objective was to kill High Commissioner Ylro and the treacherous High Bishop, Nilreb. They were meeting in secret and incognito to find a way to stop the STU. Let this be a lesson to all who wish to defy the STU! Your days will be numbered."
   "You may have succeeded in killing them, although they are still alive. But officials put the death toll at 300 so far, all of them innocent bystanders. There are as many as 150 people injured, many of them passers-by in the street. How can you justify that?"
   "I don't need to justify my activities to you. Those people are meaningless in the long-range strategy we have developed. The individuals must be sacrificed to the greater good of Oarrn's one true religion, the Holy Fellowship of Schad!"
   "But Bishop Ogatrac, if it is indeed Ogatrac I am speaking to, and if it is indeed the High Commissioner and the High Bishop that I saw, what could they possibly... He hung up. We have reporters dispatched to the University of Olso Medical Center, where the ambulances were heading. And now, back to the studios."

   "Neac, our tracers put Ogatrac in the vicinity of the port. That's two hours from here. Can we get the local Police on the case?"
   "Martin, my friend, as soon as we saw where Ogatrac was calling from, they were dispatched. We must thank Sinng Stoarn for keeping him on the phone long enough so that we could zero in on him."
   "It seems that all such criminals want to tempt the Police, give them a chance to catch them."
    "If you permit it, I would like to get Christina in our party. Please get your people rounded up within 15 minutes. We'll leave from here."
   "Neac, it will be our pleasure to join you."

   "Why are you getting a plane ready, despite the bad weather?"
   "Christina, Commodore Vasa, we must get to Olso by the quickest means possible. Under the circumstances, this is as fast as our transport will take us."
   "Why not beam up to Constellation, zip to a spot above Olso, and teleport down?"
   "Neac, she's right! We could be there in minutes rather than hours."
   "Let's get all these agents on board at once. Ju-Sen, be prepared for a series of people coming on board!"

   They think they can catch me, do they? I've given them the slip. Shouldn't have spoken so long with that reporter. Probably should't have spoken at all. They appear to have been able to trace my call, despite my scrambling mechanism. Where exactly am I? Near the marina. Good. I can get on a speedboat and get out of here fast. Go north to Ublask, where there's a hidden cove, take refuge in the bombed-out temple until the storm is past. That Sinng Stoarn woman wants to know how I justify killing innocent civilians. Hah! None of them is innocent. They're either with us, or against us. They believe in Oarrn, or they're infidels. If they're infidels, they don't deserve to live.
   Hmm. Police here. I see a boat moored out in the water, maybe 100 meters out. If I slip in quietly here and swim out, gently, making as little noise and as few ripples as possible, I'll be able to get on board unnoticed. Ah, a ladder going down. Good. Into the water now. Light shining up ahead. I'll get close to it, then swim underwater. Good thing I've kept in good form.
   Damn tetrapods, get away! Calm yourself, Ogatrac, they don't hurt, they just try to nip you. Don't let them make you give yourself away. Ow! It got me on the neck. Got it; I'll crush you to death, you damn pest! Ha, ha! Good to get some air in the old lungs. Underwater again for a few meters. OK, just a short distance to go. What do I hear? Arrgh! Bitten on the arm! Oh, no, it's not a tetrapod! It must be a sea serpent. Hope it's not a ruasacsip. It is! More than one. Got to make it to the boat! My arm! it's paralyzed! They're biting my other arm, my legs, my neck! AAARRRGH!

   "Did you hear something, Oogar?"
   "Yeah, sounded like someone screaming way out there."
   "How can there be anyone out there? The marina's been closed for an hour."
   "Notuom, look! There's someone thrashing around there. He or she is being attacked by one or more ruasacsips! Quick! Call up the Chief, tell her we're on our way to help a victim. We'll need an ambulance. While you're calling, I'll get a boat ready."

   Pain is terrible. I can't resist them any more. I don't have any feeling in my limbs, but I seem to be able to control them enough to float. What are they doing just hovering in the water around me? Why don't they finish me off? I'm drifting towards the boat. If I get there, will I be able to get on? Oh, the pain. My head is aching, my body is chilled! Are they afraid to swallow their own poison? A meter away. Maybe I can somehow force myself up. No! Get away! Those fangs. At my throat! Can't get up! Schad, I'm coming to meet you and Oarrn! What do I see? All those bloody people! No, just phantasmagora. Pain. AAAARGH! Can't... keep... up... any...

   "Shoot that snake! Grab that person!"
   "We're too late, Notuom. He's dead."
   "Wonder who it is and why he's here?"
   "I don't know that, but I do know that there's a hungry bunch of  ruasacsips swimming around here. Let's rev up the engine and get to shore!"
   "I've got him under wraps. His body is all stiff from the poison of those things. Another minute or two and they'd have eaten every ounce of flesh on him."

   "Christina, Martin, we've found Ogatrac. Dead."
   "Are you sure it's him?"
   "Even in death his hatred can be seen. The guards fished him out of the bay. He should have known that with stormy weather the ruasacsips come into shallow water around here."
   "With luck, the death of this charismatic leader will make the rest of the STU throw down their arms."
   "I wonder what Nilreb wanted to speak to the High Commissioner about?"
   "We might never know, Christina. With both of them dead, it might be impossible to ascertain."
   "Don't you think they would have let someone into their confidence? Those are not people who act without consultation. Even if it's a major secret affair like this, someone should know. Someone must know."
   "Well, I have to make my report to Deputy High Commissioner Amil. She will be sworn in shortly. Let's ask her to hold off the swearing-in ceremony until I can get back."

   "Chief Neac, I found High Bishop Nilreb's secretary on the floor when I came in to tell him of Ogatrac's death. A self-inflicted wound. He had some disks in his hand. I played one. It was a recording of a secret meeting I had had with the High Bishop. Your agents had been bugging us for months! The action your forces took were unconscionable. I shall protest to the courts."
   "Bugged? We didn't bug him. We had no reason to suspect him of anything. But my agents did find something you should hear, Bishop Madstop, before you go to court. Listen to this."

 "Tomorrow at noon, Wocsom? At the Triumph Restaurant in Olso?"
   "Yes, Ogatrac. I have wired the High Bishop's office for sound, and have heard his conversation with Bishop Madstop. They want to seek a compromise, perhaps go into exile."
   "Exile? They'll get exile. Permanent exile."

"You know, Neac, I've been thinking about that exile idea. They could be left around Ksnim, couldn't they?"
   "Keeping them there would require major security efforts for decades, Martin. I'm not sure there's a place on Damos that would be safe. And the cost!"
   "What about a place off Damos?"
   "What do you mean, Christina?"
   "My guess is that Amil is looking to the stars. Actually, I know she is. I planted the idea in her mind."
   "You mean Unias?"
   "No, Martin. We've already agreed in principle to enter into a joint exploration of that planet, to survey it thoroughly geologically and to catalog its biota. No, that's out. But there are two other planets."
   "Tertia Minor and Tertia Major!"
   "I get it! Especially Tertia Major, which has a gravitational field almost as strong as Damos. People could live comfortably there near the equator and up in the mid latitudes."
   "Yes, Martin. The idea came to me because we had offered such a refuge to the Militia. Do you remember?"
   "Of course! Paracelsus!"
   "Their response was to blow up a port on Mars. The result was their extermination. I think the STU are more reasonable, in their way. I think that with the High Chief of Security promising a life of Hell's Portal type prisons, in solitary confinement, they might look on Tertia Major as a place of refuge rather than as a place of exile."
   "We could let them name it whatever they want, maybe something after Schad."
   "It would make sense to draw up a kind of charter granting them autonomous government on one of the continents, under the control of Damos. In a couple of decades, once your party has returned from Earth, you can have your own space-age ships to establish contact with them. The other Damosians can set up colonies on the other continents. You'd be able to keep an eye on them that way, and also begin a long-range exploration and discovery of the life on the planet, its geography, the whole works. It could also serve as a platform for examining Minor."
   "Christina, what a great solution, if they accept it!"
   "But Neac, they'll reject such an idea for two reasons: first, the idea was thought up by humans; second, they oppose space travel."
   "Yes, Martin, but consider this: they don't have to know it was Christina's idea. And Nilreb seemed to have been toying with the idea that perhaps the writings of Schad have been misinterpreted. With the Hell's Portal persuasion, maybe our friend High Bishop Madstop will see that his predecessor was right. This may seem like the honorable way out. They'll have their land, their dignity. They'll be left alone. And instead of the punishment they deserve, and that by now they must know they deserve, they'll have a safe refuge. But the costs will be, if you'll pardon the pun, astronomical."
   "Not so much in the long run, when you consider the cost of building and maintaining prisons for so many people."
   "Martin, you're right. Christina, a brilliant idea. When we meet tomorrow, I'm sure Amil will start to feel out Madstop. And I'm sure that under the circumstances we can get the plan underway. There's only one problem. Transportation."
   "People? Materials? Neac, as you know, we're planning on returning to Earth in six months. Constellation is able to handle this kind of mission. All we need is the highest level of security, and we know we can count on you for that."
   "Christina, Neac probably doesn't recognize the great influence the Kolok have exercised on us Earth people. Like you, Neac, I have an instinct to do away with these brutes. Maybe that goes with our kind of job, but I think that most of my crew members would have felt like me before we met you. Christina didn't need conversion to your way of thinking: she was already there. You're making the rest of us better, more human."
   Christina smiled. "No, Martin: they're Kolokizing us."