We made no attempt to track down Feneloni’s associates, hoping that without a leader they would not reoffend.
So it proved. Nevertheless we knew they were there, ready for violence should the opportunity arise.
Cang Hai was nervous after her experience.
‘Tom, this is the second time I’ve been threatened with rape! What is it about me…?’
We talked it over and over. Ben Borrow came and let her talk it out of her system, as far as that was possible.
One evening, she said to me, ‘We know there are such men on Earth. Why should we be surprised to find them here, except that you and I are such innocents?’
It surprised me that she should think me an innocent, but I made no comment on that. ‘They will submit to the rules of society as long as it suits them.’
‘I don’t know. Perhaps there’s an undercurrent of violence here we are blind to. Just as you and I are blind to the great amount of busy sexual activity going on. How is it that we enjoy debate more than sexual intercourse? Are we exceptions to the rule?’
I was stung by what she had said; I had assumed that my sexually active life had faded away during my period of mourning for my dead wife. As for Cang Hai, she clearly needed indoctrination into the pleasures of sex. That night, when the domes lay under their usual suspirations that passed for silence, and Laputa and Swift slid across the sky outside, I undressed and went to Cang Hai’s bed.
She sat up angrily. She told me she did not wish me to try and prove anything. That was not love.
‘Don’t be silly. Let me in! We may as well have some pleasure.’
‘Go away! I’m having a period. You’re too old. I’m not prepared for anything like this. Why didn’t you warn me? You’re taking advantage of me.’ She kicked out at my legs.
Having been sent away, I lay in the dark in my own bed, wakeful, listening to the great machine that gave us life, breathing, breathing.
What had her real motives been, what mine?
How badly the human race needed a period of quiet, for reflection, and to become acquainted with its deepest motives…
After only brief discussion, we decided that Feneloni should be confined to the store room to which he had taken Cang Hai. The door should be strengthened. He should speak to no one, although he would be permitted the statutory one conversation with visitors. He should have three meals a day. A television monitor would be permitted, on which he could follow the events of the day in the domes. He should be incarcerated for two weeks, and then questioned again, to be set free if he had come to any better conclusion about himself.
If not, then mentatropy was to be applied.
In order to hasten Cang Hai’s return to her normal state of equilibrium, and to allow me some relief from the burdens of organisation, which seemed to be exacting a toll on my health, the two of us sat in on some of Alpha’s nursery classes.
Their Social Skills class began with a song:
Folk of many creeds and nations
Travelled in realms of thought,
Made their computations,
Forged from steel and flame
Ships of no earthly sort
Leaving earthly port –
So strangers to Red Planet came.
The song ran though several verses. The children sang lustily, with enjoyment. It was noticeable that the girls concentrated on the music. Some of the boys were secretly prodding each other and making faces.
Afterwards I asked Alpha what she thought of the song, which sounded rather laboured to my ears.
‘We like it,’ Alpha said. ‘It’s a good song, about us.’
‘What do you like about it?’
‘”Ships of no earthly sort” – that’s really hot. What does it mean, do you suppose?’
The teacher, the sculptor Benazir Bahudur, kept the two sexes in the same classroom but segregated. ‘It’s a difference in the genes,’ she explained. ‘The boys have more difficulty in learning social skills, as you know. The girls are more intuitive. We think the boys need the girls in the room, to be given a glimpse of an alternative way of behaving. You will see the difference when we get to the games. But first we have a Natural History Slot. Are you ready, kids?’