Free The Virgin of Zesh & the Tower of Zanid by L. Sprague de Camp Page B

“I have talked with Mr. Halevi, too, and I fear that he is as much of a fanatic in his way as Mr. Kuroki. He talks a great speech about democracy and leads some sort of underground opposition. But once in power—”
    “Mother of God, have they even got politics here?”
    “Man is a political animal,” said Bahr.
    “Then I might as well go back to Earth; this turns out to be just as crass. What’s your idea?”
    Bahr explained. “First, I want to get in touch with the Záva. After all, they are what I came here for.”
    “Here now, don’t go joining them! Kuroki’s right about that. If we do get caught here, our only safety lies in absolute neutrality.”
    Althea burst out, “I don’t agree, Brian! If the Daryava are going to make an unprovoked attack on Zá to enslave its people, it’s our duty to warn them.”
    “Look, darling, if you want to risk your pretty neck for the sake of the monkey-men, that’s one thing; but ours, too, is something else. Gottfried, she’s a fine girl with noble instincts and all, but as a man of science you should take an impartial attitude, now shouldn’t you?”
    Bahr frowned. “I fear that I agree with Althea, although not for her reason.”
    “What then?”
    “I came here to do an important job; but if my subjects are all killed or enslaved, I cannot test them, can I?”
    “The Devil take your tests! Don’t tell me that learning whether a monkey can put a dot in the circle and in the triangle but not in the hexagon is worth more than life itself—even life on the Isle of the Free!”
    “There is more to it than that,” continued Bahr equably. “You said yourself that Mr. Kuroki will not help us to leave here, and our first chance otherwise would not come until the visit of the next ship bringing mail from Majbur.”
    “When’s that?” asked Althea.
    “Not for several ten-nights, as I ascertained by inquiry. But if we warned the Záva, we might be in a position to ask that they take us off this island in one of their ships.”
    Kirwan said, “But how are you going to get in touch with them?”
    “Through the so-called Virgin of Zesh.”
    “’Tis against the rules of the club to visit the lady,” said Kirwan.
    “That seems unreasonable,” said Althea.
    “You don’t know our latter-day Zeus,” said Kirwan. “The more unreasonable a thing is, the better he likes it. He claims the Záva are following in the fatal footsteps of us Terrans, by building up an industrialized, mechanized culture. So they’re as contaminating an influence as Earthmen, and he has tried to stop all contact with them.”
    “Well, he can’t stop Gottfried and me from going there,” said Althea. “We don’t belong.”
    “Maybe he can’t, but some of his muscle boys could have a lot of fun trying.”
    “Oh.” Althea had not until this moment realized the full implications of being where the only law was the whim of the head man. But she scornfully asked, “Are you afraid?”
    “Devil a bit. If you and Gottfried go, I’ll go, too. But if you’ll take a bit of advice, you’ll go at night, when the rest of the nature nuts are asleep.”
    After dinner, Althea and Bahr managed to avoid the officious heads of the colony. They spend the afternoon in professional work. Bahr taught Althea about psychology in general and psychometry in particular. Although Althea had had a fairly good education, it had been almost entirely in the arts and had barely skimmed the sciences. Now she found new vistas opening.
    She began to understand her own repressions, until she could believe that she might really have married Gorchakov willingly, as he claimed, under the control of a wanton, passionate, but normally suppressed part of her nature.
    Looking at Bahr’s sleek, dark head, she even wondered if she had been right in turning him down. But no, able teacher and conscientious scientist though he was, he had no more emotional appeal than any other piece of shiny, efficient machinery. Doubtless