Stranger in a Strange Land

«Just a moment,» Caxton protested. «Captain — Mars invade us?Mars? Wouldn't that be like us attacking Jupiter? We have two and a half times the surface gravity that Mars has; Jupiter has two and a half times ours. Analogous differences on pressure, temperature, atmosphere, and so forth.We couldn't live on Jupiter … and I don't see how Martians could stand our conditions. Isn't that true?»

«Close enough,» admitted van Tromp.

«Why should we attack Jupiter? Or Mars attack us?»

«Ben, have you seen the proposals for a beachhead on Jupiter?»

«Nothing has gone beyond the dream stage. It isn't practical.»

«Space flight wasn't practical a few years ago. Engineers calculate that, by using all we've learned from ocean exploration, plus equipping men with powered suits, it is possible to tackle Jupiter. Don't think that Martians are less clever than we are. You should see their cities.»

«Uh — » said Caxton. «Okay, I still don't see why they would bother.»

«Captain?»

«Yes, Jubal?»

«I see another objection. You know the classification of cultures into “Apollonian” and “Dionysian”.»

«I know in general.»

«Well, it seems to me that even Zuni culture would be called “Dionysian” on Mars. You've been there — but I've been talking with Mike. That boy was raised in an Apollonian culture — such cultures are not aggressive.»

«Mmm … I wouldn't count on it.»

Mahmoud said suddenly, «Skipper, there's evidence to support Jubal. You can analyse a culture from its language — and there isn't any Martian word for “war”. At least, I don't think there is. Nor for “weapon”… nor “fighting”. If a word isn't in a language, then its culture never has the referent.»

«Oh, twaddle, Stinky! Animals fight — ants conduct wars. Do they have words for it?»

«They would have,» Mahmoud insisted, «in any verbalizing race. A verbalizing race has words for every concept and creates new ones or new definitions whenever a new concept evolves. A nervous system able to verbalize cannot avoid verbalizing. If the Martians know what “war” is, they have a word for it.»

«There's a way to settle it,» Jubal suggested. «Call in Mike.»

«Just a moment,» van Tromp objected. «I learned years ago never to argue with a specialist. But I also learned that history is a long list of specialists who were dead wrong — sorry, Stinky.»

«You're right, Captain — only I'm not wrong this time.»

«All Mike can settle is whether he knows a certain word … which might be like asking a two-year-old to define “calculus”. Let's stick to facts. Sven? About Agnew?»

Nelson answered, «It's up to you, Captain.»

«Well … this is among water brothers, Gentlemen. Lieutenant Agnew was our junior medical officer. Brilliant, Sven tells me. But he couldn't stand Martians. I had given orders against going armed once it appeared that Martians were peaceful.

«Agnew disobeyed me — at least we were never able to find his side arm and the men who saw him alive say that he was wearing it. But all my log shows is: “Missing and presumed dead”.

«Two crewmen saw Agnew go into a passage between two large rocks. Then they saw a Martian enter the same way — whereupon they hurried, as Dr. Agnew's peculiarity was well known.

«Both heard a shot. One says that he reached this opening in time to glimpse Agnew past the Martian. And then he didn't see Agnew. The second man says that when he got there the Martian was just exiting, sailed on past and went his way. With the Martian out of the way they could see the space between the rocks … and it was a dead end, empty.

«That's all, gentlemen. Agnew might have jumped that rock wall, under Mars' low gravity and the impetus of fear — but I could not and I tried — and to mention that these crewmen were wearing breathing gear — have to, on Mars — and hypoxia makes a man's senses unreliable. I don't know that the first crewman was drunk through oxygen shortage; I mention it because it is easier to believe than what he reported — which is that Agnew vanished in the blink of an eye. I suggested that he had suffered hypoxia and ordered him to check his breather gear.

«I thought Agnew would show up and I was looking forward to chewing him out for going armed.