The Season of Forgiveness

Poul Anderson

Boy’s Life

December, 1973

It was a strange and lonely place for a Christmas celebration—the chill planet of a red dwarf star, away off in the Pleiades region, where half a dozen humans laired in the ruins of a city which had been great five thousand years ago, and everywhere else reached wilderness.

“No!” said Master Trader Thomas Overbeck. “We’ve got too much work on our hands to go wasting man-hours on a piece of frivolity.”

“It isn’t, sir,” answered his apprentice, Juan Hernandez. “On Earth it’s important. You have spent your life on the frontier, so perhaps you don’t realize this.”

Overbeck, a large blond man, reddened. “Seven months here, straight out of school, and you’re telling me how to run my shop? If you’ve learned all the practical technique I have to teach you, why, you may as well go back on the next ship.”

Juan hung his head. “I’m sorry, sir. I meant no disrespect.” Standing there, in front of the battered desk, against a window which framed the stark, sullenly lit landscape and a snag of ancient wall, he seemed younger than his sixteen Terrestrial years, slight, dark-haired, big-eyed. The company-issue coverall didn’t fit him especially well. But he was quick-witted, Overbeck realized; he had to be, to graduate from the Academy that soon. And he was hardworking, afire with eagerness. The merchants of the League operated over so vast and diverse a territory that promising recruits were always in short supply.

That practical consideration, as well as a touch of sympathy, made the chief growl in a milder tone: “Oh, of course I’ve no objection to any small religious observance you or the others may want to hold. But as for doing more—” He waved his cigar at the scene outside. “What does it mean, anyway? A date on a chronopiece. A chronopiece adjusted for Earth! Ivanhoe’s year is only two-thirds as long; but the globe takes sixty hours to spin around once; and to top it off, this is local summer, even if you don’t dare leave the dome unless you’re bundled to the ears. You see, Juan, I’ve got the same right as you to repeat the obvious.”

His laughter boomed loud. While the team kept their living quarters heated, they found it easiest to maintain ambient air pressure, a fourth again as high as Terrestrial standard. Sound carried strongly. “Believe it or not,” he finished, “I do know something about Christmas traditions, including the very old ones. You want to decorate the place and sing ‘Jingle Bells’? That’s how to make ‘em ridiculous!”

“Please, no, sir,” Juan said. “Also on Earth, in the southern hemisphere the feast

comes at summer. And nobody is sure what time of year the Nativity really happened.” He knotted his fists before he plunged on. “I thought not of myself so much, though I do remember how it is in my home. But that ship will come soon. I’m told small children are aboard. Here will be a new environment for them, perhaps frightening at first. Would we not help them feel easy if we welcomed them with a party like this?”

“Hm.” Overbeck sat still a minute, puffing smoke and tugging his chin. His apprentice had a point, he admitted.

Not that he expected the little ones to be anything but a nuisance as far as he himself was concerned. He’d be delighted to leave them behind in a few more months, when his group had ended its task. But part of that task was to set up conditions which would fit the needs of their successors. The sooner those kids adjusted to life here, the sooner the parents could concentrate on their proper business. And that was vital.

Until lately, Ivanhoe had had no more than a supply depot for possible distressed spacecraft. Then a scientific investigator found the adir herb in the deserts of another continent. It wouldn’t grow outside its own ecology; and it secreted materials which would be valuable starting points for several new organic syntheses. In short, there was money to be gotten.

Overbeck’s team was assigned to establish a base, make friends with the natives, learn their ways and the ways of their country, and persuade them to harvest the plant in exchange for trade goods.

That seemed fairly well in order now, as nearly as a man could judge amidst foreignness and mystery. The time looked ripe for putting the trade on a regular basis. Humans would not sign a contract to remain for a long stretch unless they could bring their families. Nor would they stay if the families grew unhappy. And Tom Overbeck wouldn’t collect his big, fat bonus until the post had operated successfully for five standard years.

Wherefore the Master Trader shrugged and said, “Well, okay. If it doesn’t interfere too much with work, go ahead.”

He was surprised at how enthusiastically Ram Gupta, Nikolai Sarychev, Mamoru Noguchi, and Philip Feinberg joined Juan’s project. They were likewise young, but not boys; and they had no common faith. Yet together they laughed a lot as they made ready. The rooms and passageways of the dome filled with ornaments cut from foil or sheet metal, twisted together from color-coded wire, assembled from painted paper. Smells of baking cookies filled the air. Men went about whistling immemorial tunes.

Overbeck didn’t mind that they were cheerful. That was a boost to efficiency in these grim surroundings. He argued a while when they wanted to decorate outdoors as well, but presently gave in. After all, he had a great deal else to think about.

A couple of Ivanhoan days after their talk, he was standing in the open when Juan approached him. The apprentice stopped, waited, and listened, for his chief was in

conversation with Raffak. The dome and sheds of the human base looked oddly bright, totally out of place.

Behind them, the gray walls of Dahia lifted sheer, ten meters to the parapets, overtopped by bulbous-battlemented watchtowers. They were less crumbled than the buildings within. Today’s dwindled population huddled in what parts of the old stone mansions and temples had not collapsed into rubble. A few lords maintained small castles for themselves, a few priests carried on rites behind porticos whose columns were idols, along twisting dusty streets. Near the middle of town rose the former Imperial palace. Quarried for centuries, its remnants were a colossal shapelessness.

The city dwellers were more quiet than humans. Not even vendors in their flimsy booths cried their wares. Most males were clad in leather kilts and weapons, females in zigzag-patterned robes. The wealthy and the military officers rode on beasts which resembled narrow-snouted, feathery-furred horses. The emblems of provinces long lost fluttered from the lances they carried. Wind, shrill in the lanes, bore sounds of feet, hoofs, groaning cartwheels, an occasional call or the whine of a bone flute.

A human found it cold. His breath smoked into the dry air. Smells were harsh in his nostrils. The sky above was deep purple, the sun a dull ruddy disc. Shadows lay thick; and nothing, in that wan light, had the same color as it did on Earth.

The deep tones of his language rolled from Raffak’s mouth. “We have made you welcome, we have given you a place, we have aided you by our labor and counsel,” declared the speaker of the City Elders.

“You have…for a generous payment,” Overbeck answered. “You shall not, in return, exclude Dahia from a full share in the wealth the adir will bring.”

A four-fingered hand, thumb set oppositely to a man’s, gestured outward. Through a cyclopean gateway showed a reach of dusky-green bush, part of the agricultural hinterland. “It is more than a wish to better our lot. You have promised us that. But Dahia was the crown of an empire reaching from sea to sea. Though it lies in wreck, we who live here preserve the memories of our mighty ancestors, and faithfully serve their gods. Shall desert-prowling savages wax rich and strong, while we descendants of their overlords remain weak—until they become able to stamp out this final spark of glory? Never!”

“The nomads claim the wild country,” Overbeck said. “No one has disputed that for many centuries.”

“Dahia disputes it at last. I came to tell you that we have sent forth emissaries to the Black Tents. They bore our demand that Dahia must share in the adir harvest.”

Overbeck, and a shocked Juan, regarded the Ivanhoan closely. He seemed bigger, more lionlike than was right. His powerful, longlimbed body would have loomed a full two meters tall did it not slant forward. A tufted tail whipped the bent legs. Mahogany fur turned into a mane around the flat face. That face lacked a nose—breathing was through slits beneath the jaws—but the eyes glowed green and enormous, ears stood erect, teeth gleamed sharp.

The human leader braced himself, as if against the drag of a gravity slightly stronger than Earth’s, and stated: “You were foolish. Relations between Dahia and the nomads are touchy at best, violent at worst. Let war break out, and there will be no adir trade. Then Dahia too will lose.”

“Lose material goods, maybe,” Raffak said. “Not honor.”

“You have already lost some honor by your action. You knew my people had reached agreement with the nomads. Now you Elders seek to change that agreement before consulting us.” Overbeck made a chopping gesture which signified anger and determination. “I insist on meeting with your council.”

After an argument, Raffak agreed to this for the next day, and stalked off. Hands jammed into pockets, Overbeck stared after him. “Well, Juan,” he sighed, “there’s a concrete example for you, of how tricky this business of ours can get.”

“Might the tribes really make trouble, sir?” wondered the boy.

“I hope not.” Overbeck shook his head. “Though how much do we know, we Earthlings, as short a while as we’ve been here? Two whole societies, each with its own history, beliefs, laws, customs, desires—in a species that isn’t human!”

“What do you suppose will happen?”

“Oh, I’d guess the nomads will refuse flat-out to let the Dahians send gathering parties into their territory. Then I’ll have to persuade the Dahians all over again, to let nomads bring the stuff here. That’s what happens when you try to make hereditary rivals cooperate.”

“Couldn’t we base ourselves in the desert?” Juan asked.

“It’s better to have a large labor force we can hire at need, one that stays put,” Overbeck explained. “Besides, well—” He looked almost embarrassed. “We’re after a profit, yes, but not to exploit these poor beings. An adir trade would benefit Dahia too, both from the taxes levied on it and from developing friendlier relations with the tribesfolk. In time, they could start rebuilding their civilization here. It was great once, before its civil wars and the barbarian invasions that followed.” He paused. “Don’t ever quote me to them.”

“Why not, sir? I should think—”

“You should. I doubt they would. Both factions are proud and fierce. They might decide they were being patronized, and resent it in a murderous fashion. Or they might get afraid we intend to undermine their martial virtues, or their religions, or something.” Overbeck smiled rather grimly. “No, I’ve worked hard to keep matters simple, on a level where nobody can misunderstand. In native eyes, we Earthlings are tough but fair. We’ve come to build a trade that will pay off for us, and for no other reason. It’s up to them to keep us interested in remaining, which we won’t unless they behave. That attitude, that image is clear enough, I hope, for the most alien mind to grasp. They may not love us, but they don’t hate us either, and they’re willing to do business.”

Juan swallowed and found no words.

“What’d you want of me?” Overbeck inquired.

“Permission to go into the hills, sir,” the apprentice said. “You know those crystals along Wola Ridge? They’d be beautiful on the Christmas tree.” Ardently: “I’ve finished all my jobs for the time being. It will only take some hours, if I can borrow a flitter.”

Overbeck frowned. “When a fight may be brewing? The Black Tents are somewhere that way, last I heard.”

“You said, sir, you don’t look for violence. Besides, none of the Ivanhoans have a grudge against us. And they respect our power. Don’t they? Please!”

“I aim to preserve that state of affairs.” Overbeck pondered. “Well, shouldn’t be any risk. And, hm-m-m, a human going out alone might be a pretty good demonstration of confidence…Okay,” he decided.

“Pack a blaster. If a situation turns ugly, don’t hesitate to use it. Not that I believe you’ll get in any scrape, or I wouldn’t let you go. But—” He shrugged. “There’s no such thing as an absolutely safe bet.”

Three hundred kilometers north of Dahia, the wilderness was harsh mountainsides, deep-gashed canyons, umber crags, thinly scattered thorn-shrubs and wind-gnarled trees with ragged leaves. Searching for the mineral which cropped here and there out of the sandy ground, Juan soon lost sight of his flitter. He couldn’t get lost from it himself.

The aircraft was giving off a radio signal, and the transceiver in his pocket included a directional meter for homing on it. Thus he wandered further than he realized before he had collected a bagful. However slowly Ivanhoe rotates, its days must end. Juan grew aware of how low the dim red sun was, how long and heavy the shadows. Chilliness had turned to a cold which bit at his bare face. Evening breezes snickered in the brush. Somewhere an animal howled. When he passed a rivulet, he saw that it had begun to freeze.

I’m in no trouble, he thought, but I am hungry, and late for supper, and the boss will be annoyed.

Even now, it was getting hard for him to see. His vision was meant for bright, yellow-white Sol. He stumbled on rocks. Had his radio compass not been luminous-dialed, he would have needed a flashbeam to read it.

Nevertheless he was happy. The very weirdness of this environment made it fascinating; and he could hope to go on to many other worlds. Meanwhile, the Christmas celebration would be a circle of warmth and cheer, a memory of home—his parents, his brother and two sisters, Tio Pepe and Tia Carmen, the dear small Mexican town and the laughter as children struck at a pińata.

“Raielli, Erratan!”

Halt, Earthling! Juan jarred to a stop.

He was near the bottom of a ravine, which he was crossing as the most direct way to the flitter. The sun lay hidden behind one wall of it, and dusk filled the heavens. He could just make out boulders and bushes, vague in the gloom.

Then metal caught what light there was in a faint glimmer. He saw spearheads and a single breastplate. The rest of the warriors had only leather harness. They were blurs around him, save where their huge eyes gleamed like their steel.

Juan’s heart knocked. These are friends! he told himself. The People of the Black Tents are anxious to deal with us. Then why did they wait here for me? Wliy have a score of them risen out of hiding to ring me in?

His mouth felt suddenly parched. He forced it to form words, as well as it could imitate the voice of an Ivanhoan. City and wilderness dwellers spoke essentially the same language. “G-greeting.” He remembered the desert form of salutation. “I am Juan Sancho’s-child, called Hernandez, pledged follower of the merchant Thomas William’s-child, called Overbeck, and am come in peace.”

“I am Tokonnen Undassa’s-child, chief of the Elassi Clan,” said the lion-being in the cuirass. His tone was a snarl. “We may no longer believe that any Earthling comes in peace.”

“What?” cried Juan. Horror smote him. “But we do! How—”

“You camp among the City folk. Now the City demands the right to encroach on our land…Hold! I know what you carry.” Juan had gripped his blaster. The natives growled. Spears drew back, ready to throw. Tokonnen confronted the boy and continued: “I have heard tell about weapons like yours. A fire-beam, fiercer than the sun, springs forth, and rock turns molten where it strikes. Do you think a male of Elassi fears that?” Scornfully: “Draw it if you wish.”

Juan did, hardly thinking. He let the energy gun dangle downward in his fingers and exclaimed, “I only came to gather a few crystals—”

“If you slay me,” Tokonnen warned, “that will prove otherwise. And you cannot kill more than two or three of us before the spears of the rest have pierced you. We know how feebly your breed sees in the least of shadows.”

“But what do you want?”

“When we saw you descend, afar off, we knew what we wanted—you, to hold among us until your fellows abandon Dahia.”

Half of Juan realized that being kept hostage was most likely a death sentence for him. He couldn’t eat Ivanhoan food; it was loaded with proteins poisonous to his kind of life. In fact, without a steady supply of anti-allergen, he might not keep breathing. How convince a barbarian herder of that?

The other half pleaded, “You are being wild. What matter if a few City dwellers

come out after adir? Or…you can tell them ‘no.’ Can’t you? We, we Earthlings—we had nothing to do with the embassy they sent.”

“We dare not suppose you speak truth, you who have come here for gain,” Tokonnen replied. “What is our freedom to you, if the enemy offers you a fatter bargain? And we remember, yes, across a hundred generations, we remember the Empire. So do they in Dahia. They would restore it, cage us within their rule or drive us into the badlands. Their harvesters would be their spies, the first agents of their conquest. This country is ours. It is strong with the bones of our fathers and rich with the flesh of our mothers. It is too holy for an Imperial foot to tread. You would not understand this, merchant.”

“We mean you well,” Juan stammered. “We’ll give you things—”

Tokonnen’s mane lifted haughtily against darkling cliff, twilit sky. From his face, unseen in murk, the words rang: “Do you imagine things matter more to us than our liberty or our land?” Softer: “Yield me your weapon and come along. Tomorrow we will bring a message to your chief.”

The warriors trod closer.

There went a flash through Juan. He knew what he could do, must do. Raising the blaster, he fired straight upward.

Cloven air boomed. Ozone stung with a smell of thunderstorms. Blue-white and dazzling, the energy beam lanced toward the earliest stars.

The Ivanhoans yelled. By the radiance, Juan saw them lurch back, drop their spears, clap hands to eyes. He himself could not easily look at that lightning bolt. They were the brood of a dark world. Such brilliance blinded them.

Juan gulped a breath and ran.

Up the slope! Talus rattled underfoot. Across the hills beyond! Screams of wrath pursued him.

The sun was now altogether down, and night came on apace. It was less black than Earth’s, for the giant stars of the Pleiades cluster bloomed everywhere aloft, and the nebula which enveloped them glowed lacy across heaven. Yet often Juan fell across an unseen obstacle. His pulse roared, his lungs were aflame.

It seemed forever before he glimpsed his vehicle. Casting a glance behind, he saw what he had feared, the warriors in pursuit. His shot had not permanently damaged their sight. And surely they tracked him with peripheral vision, ready to look entirely away if he tried another flash.

Longer-legged, born to the planet’s gravity, they overhauled him, meter after frantic meter. To him they were barely visible, bounding blacknesses which often disappeared into the deeper gloom around. He could not have hoped to pick them all off before one of them got to range, flung a spear fiom cover, and struck him.

Somehow, through everything, he marveled at their bravery. Run, run.

He had barely enough of a head start. He reeled into the hull, dogged the door shut, and heard missiles clatter on metal. Then for a while he knew nothing.

When awareness came back, he spent a minute giving thanks. Afterward he dragged himself to the pilot chair. What a scene! passed across his mind. And, a crazy chuckle: The old definition of adventure. Somebody else having a hard time a long ways off. He slumped into the seat. The vitryl port showed him a sky turned wonderful, a land of dim slopes and sharp ridges. He gasped and sat upright. The Ivanhoans were still outside.

They stood leaning on their useless spears or clinging to the hilts of their useless swords, and waited for whatever he would do. Shakily, he switched on the sound amplifier and bullhorn. His voice boomed over them: “What do you want?”

Tokonnen’s answer remained prideful. “We wish to know your desire, Earthling. For in you we have met a thing most strange.” Bewildered, Juan could merely respond with, “How so?”

“You rendered us helpless,” Tokonnen said. “Why did you not at once kill us? Instead, you chose to flee. Yon must have known we would recover and come after you. Why did you take the unneeded risk?”

“You were helpless,” Juan blurted. “I couldn’t have…hurt you…especially at this time of year.”

Tokonnen showed astonishment. “Time of year? What has that to do with it?”

“Christmas—” Juan paused. Strength and clarity of mind were returning to him. “You don’t know about that. It’s a season which, well, commemorates one who came to us Earthlings, ages ago, and spoke of peace as well as much else. For us, this is a holy time.” He laid hands on controls. “No matter. I only ask you believe that we don’t mean you any harm. Stand aside. I am about to raise this wagon.”

“No,” Tokonnen said. “Wait. I ask you, wait.” He was silent for a while, and his warriors with him. “What you have told us. We must hear further. Talk to us, Earthling.”

Once he had radioed that he was safe, they stopped worrying about Juan at the base. For the next several hours, the men continued their jobs. It was impossible for them to function on a sixty-hour day, and nobody tried. Midnight had not come when they knocked off. Recreation followed. For four of them, this meant preparing their Christmas welcome to the ship.

As they worked outdoors, more and more Dahians gathered, fascinated, to stand silently around the plaza and watch. Overbeck stepped forth to observe the natives in his turn. Nothing like this had ever happened before.

A tree had been erected on the flagstones. Its sparse branches and stiff foliage did not suggest an evergreen; but no matter, it glittered with homemade ornaments and lights improvised from electronic parts. Before it stood a manger scene that Juan had constructed. A risen moon, the mighty Pleiades, and the luminous nebular veil cast frost-cold brilliance. The beings who encompassed the square, beneath lean houses and fortress towers, formed a shadow-mass wherein eyes glimmered.

Feinberg and Gupta decorated. Noguchi and Sarychev, who had the best voices, rehearsed. Breath from their song puffed white.

“O little town of Bethlehem,

How still we see thee lie—”

A muted “A-a-ahhh!” rose from the Dahians, and Juan landed his flitter.

He bounded forth. Behind him came a native in a steel breastplate. Overbeck had awaited this since the boy’s last call. He gestured to Raffak, speaker of the Elders. Together, human and Ivanhoan advanced to greet human and Ivanhoan.

Tokonnen said, “It may be we misjudged your intent, City folk. The Earthling tells me we did.”

“And his lord tells me we of Dahia pushed forward too strongly,” Raffak answered. “That may likewise be.”

Tokonnen touched sword-hilt and warned, “We shall yield nothing which is sacred to us.”

“Nor we,” said Raffak. “But surely our two people can reach an agreement. The Earthlings can help us make terms.”

“They should have special wisdom, now in the season of their Prince of Peace.”

“Aye. My fellows and I have begun some hard thinking about that.”

“How do you know of it?”

“We were curious as to why the Earthlings were making beauty, here where we can see it away from the dreadful heat,” Raffak said. “We asked. In the course of this, they told us somewhat of happenings in the desert, which the far-speaker had informed them of.”

“It is indeed something to think about,” Tokonnen nodded. “They, who believe in peace, are more powerful than us.”

“And it was war which destroyed the Empire. But come,” Raffak invited. “Tonight be my guest. Tomorrow we will talk.”

They departed. Meanwhile the men clustered around Juan. Overbeck shook his hand again and again. “You’re a genius,” he said. “I ought to take lessons from you.”

“No, please, sir,” his apprentice protested. “The thing simply happened.”

“It wouldn’t have, if I’d been the one who got caught.”

Sarychev was puzzled. “I don’t quite see what did go on,” he confessed. “It was good of Juan to run away from those nomads, instead of cutting them down when he had the chance. However, that by itself can’t have turned them meek and mild.”

“Oh, no.” Overbeck chuckled. His cigar end waxed and waned like a variable star. “They’re as ornery as ever—same as humans.” Soberly: “The difference is, they’ve become willing to listen to us. They can take our ideas seriously, and believe we’ll be honest brokers, who can mediate their quarrels.”

“Why could they not before?”

“My fault, I’m afraid. I wasn’t allowing for a certain part of Ivanhoan nature. I should have seen. After all, it’s part of human nature too.”

“What is?” Gupta asked.

“The need for—” Overbeck broke off. “You tell him, Juan. You were the one who did see the truth.”

The boy drew breath. “Not at first,” he said. “I only found I could not bring myself to kill. Is Christmas not when we should be quickest to forgive our enemies? I told them so. Then…when suddenly their whole attitude changed…I guessed what the reason must be.” He searched for words. “They knew—both Dahians and nomads knew—we are strong; we have powers they can’t hope to match. That doesn’t frighten them. They have to be fearless, to survive in as bleak a country as this.

“Also, they have to be dedicated. To keep going through endless hardship, they must believe in something greater than themselves, like the Imperial dream of Dahia or the freedom of the desert. They’re ready to die for those ideals.

“We came, we Earthlings. We offered them a fair, profitable bargain. But nothing else. We seemed to have no other motive than material gain. They could not understand this. It made us too peculiar. They could never really trust us.

“Now that they know we have our own sacrednesses, well, they see we are not so different from them, and they’ll heed our advice.” Juan uttered an unsteady laugh. “What a long lecture, no?” he ended. “I’m very tired and hungry. Please, may I go get something to eat and afterward to bed?”

As he crossed the square, the carol followed him:

“—The hopes and fears of all the years

Are met in thee tonight.”

2008.04.30 4600 wordsp>

Collected in:

The Earth Book of Stormgate

Christmas on Ganymede and Other Stories [1990]

Notes: No physical copy to proof against. Original proof probably from text (no italics) and in terrible shape. Scan errors were all easy enough to correct but paragraphing is something of a guess.

Needs a rescan but this is a substantial improvement.