as one of the seventy-six male lieutenants of the regiment, hartford pulled o.g. about once every eleven weeks. his terrible third drew duty with him as guard platoon. all of them could expect to sleep through the night undisturbed, unless nasty nef held a dry-run, falling them out for a simulated problem. nef was tired tonight, though; the guard could sleep. only the two men on picket and the handful of service company personnel on duty at the status board need stay awake tonight.
awake or sleeping, the security of first regiment would rest this night in the hands of lee hartford. it was he who bore the final responsibility for allowing no living thing to enter the barracks except in a well-scrubbed safety-suit; for assuring that the air his sleeping comrades breathed was sterile and dustless; that the syphon's poisonous bug-juice was of the proper ph and germicidity; and for checking that the whereabouts of every axenite on kansas was reflected on the status board. that these duties were complex was attested by the assignment of a service company officer to the board, a woman who would watch the board's bands of lights and meters every moment. hartford could sleep; he was the responsible male. mrs. paula piacentelli, 1/lt. s.c. (gnotobiotics spec.), had to remain awake: she was the knowledgeable woman.
hartford found paula already at her work in the board room. only a bit over five feet tall, piacentelli's wife was concentrated woman of the most splendid sort. when hartford had told her that pia was taking the picket, she frowned. "i hope he doesn't plan anything foolish."
"me? foolish?" piacentelli demanded from the elevator. he walked up, clammed shut in his blue safety-suit, ready to hit bug-dirt. under one arm he carried a package sheathed in opaque plastic. behind him, in the gray safety-suit of an enlisted trooper, was a man hartford recognized as corporal bond, machine-gunner from pia's platoon. "lieutenant gabriel piacentelli reporting with one man, sir and ma'am," he said, saluting his wife and hartford.
"at ease, weenie-head," hartford said. "with you and bond on picket amidst the sunflowers, i won't sleep a wink all night." he turned to the corporal. "did you sure-enough volunteer for this duty?" he asked.
"yes, sir!" bond said. "i voluntarily assumed the duty of absorbing a fifth of lt. piacentelli's class-vi scotch. the lieutenant was kind enough to reciprocate by offering me this tour."
"he gave you scotch?" hartford turned to piacentelli. "gabe, for a jug of scotch i'd have gone on picket with you myself. what's that you're taking outside with you? lunch?"
"a microscope," piacentelli said. "i'm doing a little research for paula." his wife nodded. a gnotobiotics technician, responsible for maintaining the bacteriological security of the barracks, she had business with microscopes.
"want to give me the word on this romp of yours?" hartford asked.
"standard picket, lee," piacentelli said. "i'll learn a little kansan, take care of paula's project and tell you all about it when we get back."
"let's see your weapons." hartford inspected bond's dardick-rifle and piacentelli's dardick-pistol. both weapons were loaded, clean and wrapped up for their trip through the wet gut in plastic sleeves. the trucks and heavy weapons stayed outside on bug-dirt. the lighter weapons and all ammunition came back inside the barracks with the troopers who carried them. the weapons were detail-stripped on each re-entry, irradiated with u-v and fit with fresh sleeves. as had been discovered with the first axenic animals, in the 1930's, keeping a mammal germ-free is a formidable task. when that mammal is a human being and a soldier the job is double-tough.
"check out a jeep," hartford said. "report each half-hour. don't shoot any stinkers ... sorry, i mean indigenous hominids. try not to hit a camelopard with the jeep; we're low on replacement parts. in fact, be careful. okay, pia?"
"done and done, exalted one."
hartford dropped his voice. "i'd feel easier in my mind if i knew what's so important as to require your desertion of our mutual womb tonight, pia."
"language study, you might say," piacentelli replied.
"ha! so desa ka?" hartford replied. "that's so much bug-dirt, and you know it."
"ha!" piacentelli said. "see you at dawn. take care of my wife, buddy."
"aren't you going to kiss her good night?" hartford asked.
pia grinned through his clammed-shut helmet and clomped to the elevator with bond. they were en route to the hot gut and the wet gut, the twisting hallway from the sterile first regiment barracks to the living night of kansas.
hartford turned.
paula piacentelli wore the short skirt, knee-hose and short-sleeved blouse of pioneer green that was the class b uniform for females inside the barracks. she looked, hartford thought, remarkably delectable; and he again congratulated his friend on his luck in getting her. he returned his attention to the status board, which paula was conning. two red lights flickered on above the ground-floor diagram of the barracks, indicating that the two men of the picket had entered the hot gut. a moment later these lights blinked off, and two lighted over the diagram of the wet gut. piacentelli and bond were swimming now, towing their weapons in ballooning plastic sleeves. sterile, on their way out into a filthy world, these two men were the outpost that would protect through the night their hundreds of brothers and sisters sleeping safe in utero. freud, thou shouldst have lived this hour! hartford mused.
piacentelli turned the ignition key of the jeep he'd chosen. with the starting cough of the engine, one of the rank of tv screens over the status board lighted. the camera eye was looking out the rear-view mirror of the jeep, and picked up pia's helmeted head and the shoulder of his companion. "we're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz!" piacentelli sang.
his wife spoke into the microphone before her. "don't do anything foolish, lieutenant," she said. "and remember, all transmissions are recorded and are audited, at random, by the base commander."
"transmission received, receiver contrite," piacentelli reported back. "okay, paula-darling. from now on till bond and i swim home, we'll be as military as gi soap." he flicked the tv monitor around to look out the windshield and started the jeep down the road toward stinkerville. the duty of the picket was to chug around outside at random, hitting all the cross-roads, settlements and high spots of the countryside near the barracks; to interview late-riding indigenous hominids and inquire their business being out; to conduct such searches of stinker homes and hideaways as might seem useful to the occupying axenites; and to remain at all times in contact with the officers on duty at the status board.
as the picket got underway, hartford went down to the terrible third's area to check quickly through the two-man apartments. knock on the door; "as you were, troopers." a brisk inspection of two safety-suits, gaping beside their owners' bunks like firemen's boot-sheathed pants. the men were quiet. guard-duty meant that any socializing with service company troopers was impossible for a night, and militated against any intake of alcoholic beverage. it was a bore, especially after three dry and womanless weeks in the field. hartford visited his platoon sergeant last: "sergeant felix, could you have our bunch standing on bug-dirt ten minutes after i blew the whistle? very well, then. good night, felix."
having demonstrated to his troopers that he was suffering the same strictures as they, hartford went back to the o.g. cubicle in the board room. he checked his own safety-suit, his plastic-packaged dardick-pistol, said good night to paula piacentelli and lay down to begin his first night's sleep outside a safety-suit in three weeks.
but sleep didn't come easily.
there was the murmur from the board room; piacentelli's half-hourly reports. "nothing to report, paula. i'm at road junction (41-17). no i.h. activity. no excitement at all."
"continue random patrol, lieutenant."
"yes, dear. i'm going to run down to kansannamura (42-19) for my next call-in."
"carry on, lieutenant."
pia was in the best possible hands with paula on duty, hartford mused. the status board was really a woman's job. the girls of the service companies were the house-keepers of the barracks, the guardians of the regimental lares and penates. paula, for example, had as her primary duty gnotobiotic control: the maintenance of the whole germ-free system of the barracks, from the hot-&-wet guts to safety-suit inspection and the upkeep of the decontamination vehicles. behind the women on board-duty, however, was always at least one male, combat-trained officer of the guard, ready (once awakened and briefed by the female help) to take armed men into the field.
but meanwhile, hartford wanted to sleep.
half an hour passed, and at its end pia made his report: "picket reporting, paula. i'm going into the village. corporal bond will remain with the jeep, and will keep the transmitter open till i get back. okay?"
"be careful, lieutenant," paula piacentelli said, combining affection with military formality.
hartford, deciding that sleep was impossible, got up and cold-showered. dressing in fresh class b's, he walked out to join paula at the status board. the tv screen showed bond, the sheathed dardick-rifle slung over his shoulder, pacing back and forth in front of the jeep, glancing from time to time toward the walls of kansannamura, white in the light of the skyful of stars. he was nervous, evidently aware of the fact that kansas was largely unexplored, her potential for midnight mayhem untested. bond spoke across his shoulder. "the lieutenant has been gone for a quarter hour, ma'am," he said. "do you want me to go in and ask him to come out?"
"wait another quarter-hour, corporal," paula said. she explained to hartford, "what he's got to do may take a little time." they watched the screen. bond climbed back into the jeep, where he sat with his rifle between his knees, sweeping his attention around him, at the village, at the road behind, at the sunflower-fields, where the blossoms were bleached white and the leaves enameled black by starlight.
with paula's agreement, hartford pressed the microphone-switch to talk with bond. "have you tried to tap piacentelli on his suit-receiver, corporal?"
"yes, sir," bond said. "first thing. no answer."
"turn your bitcher full up, then," hartford said. "tell lieutenant piacentelli that the o.g. wants him out on the road within five minutes."
"done and done, sir." bond tongued the bitcher's controls to full volume and repeated the message. echoes bounced back from the walls of stinkerville and lost themselves in the tangle of sunflowers.
no one answered.
the village seemed as much asleep as it had been before bond's bellow. the kansans were never hasty to volunteer response to axenites; they knew that troopers meant trouble.
"piacentelli is busy at something," hartford said, as much to reassure himself as pia's wife. "i think i'll go out and have a look." he spoke to bond: "get out of the jeep, but stay close to it. report any haps immediately. watch for lights, listen for small-arms fire."
"done and done, sir."
hartford phoned felix, his platoon sergeant. "report to the board room to sub for me," he said. "wake the platoon guide and tell him to stand ready to fall the guard out, but not to wake anyone else yet. this is probably a nothing, felix; lt. piacentelli just went for a walk in stinkerville."
the command light, top in the tier of all the hierarchy of red-yellow-green-white status-board indicators, flashed alive.
"a nothing?" nasty nef's voice demanded. "what sort of talk is that, lieutenant? if i've been properly interpreting the past five minutes' transmissions, we've got an axenite officer stranded in the middle of a stinker village. this, mister, is not a nothing. call out the guard. prepare to join me in a stinkerville shakedown. those gooks got to learn they can't play fast-and-easy with axenite troopers."
"done and done, sir!" hartford snapped. he toggled the phone to get felix back. "felix, fall the boys out beside the syphon. we've got the old man hitting bug-dirt with us, so look sharp."
"the colonel's going out with us?" felix asked.
"yes. there must be more to this situation than meets the company-grade eye," hartford said. "diaper-up our darlings and stand by in the hot gut, felix."
"done and done!"
twenty seconds later a figure in santa claus red came clashing into the room. hartford, half into his blue safety-suit, came to a clumsy attention. the newcomer, his helmet clammed shut all ready for contamination, bellowed, "get with it, mister!"
"yes, sir." hartford fit himself into the suit, a sort of cockpit, a congeries of valves, gauges, counters and vetters. in a moment he'd sealed himself in the sterile suit, checked his air-filters and air reserve. "the guard is assembled in the hot gut, sir, ready to take the field."
"dam' well better be," nef said. "lead off, mister." he turned to paula piacentelli. "send a decontamination vehicle after us, lieutenant. no telling what those stinker devils have cooked up with piacentelli." back to hartford: "you're in command of the guard, i'll observe and offer suggestions."
"tain-hut!" platoon sergeant felix saluted the scarlet-clad colonel and the blue-clad lieutenant as they stepped from the elevator into the electric atmosphere of the hot gut. the guard snapped to, their plastic-packaged dardick-rifles at order arms.
"take 'em out, felix," hartford said. "two personnel carriers, a .50-caliber m.g.-mounted jeep fore and aft. you and the colonel take the rear jeep; i'll lead. have the men unbag their weapons the instant we're outside. any questions?"
"no, sir."
"move out," hartford said.
