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side. The black fin darted forward, there was a flash of huge teeth, and the
water bubbled and swirled where the food had gone overboard.
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"Yes," said Peep, sadly. "There seems to be something in what you say. Still,
the principle of nonviolence remains sound. You see, young friends,
nonviolence is anchored in the concept of complete responsibility. If I feel a
proper and total sense of responsibility for the welfare of every other living
creature, how can I conceive of violence toward it? Obviously I cannot, for
all of us, living creatures, are more alike than we think."
"Which reminds me," said Jim, having finished his breakfast, "I don't know
about the rest of you, but it's hard to believe that the people on this world
can have so many things that are just like those on Earth. Look clothing,
knives, bows, ships, sails. I can see something basic like well, like physics
being the same on worlds that are as much alike as this and Earth, but the
rest of it seems too good to be true."
"But there is a physics of Life, too, young friend," said Peep. "For example,
on an Earth type world the quadruped animal with a four-chambered heart and
internal temperature control, such as Earthly mammals have, is the most
efficient living form. On different types of worlds, of course, life takes
different forms. But here, as on Earth, the quadruped naturally evolved, who,
on gaining intelligence, needed to use its front paws as hands, and so learned
to stand erect and so on, until a roughly manlike creature emerged or, I might
say, Atakitlike, if I wished to be parochial in my attitude."
"That's right," said Ellen. "Biology relates to environment. And once you have
a manlike intelligent animal, he's going to encounter manlike problems. He'll
need housing, he'll want decoration, he'll need to store food and drink and so
on."
"And you talk about weapons," broke in Curt, eagerly. "How many weapons do you
think are possible on a simple mechanical level? There are three orders of
levers, right, depending on where the fulcrum is placed?"
"Right," said Jim, astonished to find the lanky Archaist knowing anything so
sensible.
"All right, think of weapons as levers for exerting force against an object or
an enemy. What do we have? First, on the most primitive level, there's a rock
or stick, held or thrown to hit somebody. In either case, whether it's held or
thrown, it's an example of a third-order lever with the force being exerted
between the fulcrum, which is at the shoulder joint of the arm holding the
weapon, and the weight of the stick or stone itself. Do you follow me?"
"So far," said Jim, cautiously.
"All right, a stone pointed and sharpened becomes a knife. A stick pointed and
sharpened becomes a spear, and thickened and given a heavy head it becomes a
war club. From knives inevitably come daggers and swords. From spears come
lances and pikes and so forth. From clubs with sharpened metal heads come axes
and from axes, halberds and the like."
"What about a bow and arrow?" asked Jim.
"A bow and arrow is a slighty complex version of a second-order lever," said
Curt, "with the fulcrum at the center of the bowstave itself, and the force
exerted backward at the tips by the pulled bowstring against the stiffness of
the bowstave. If you want an example of a first-order lever among weapons,
there was the trebuchet, a long pivoted arm with a weight on its short end and
a cup or container for a missile on its long end. You pulled down the long
end, put the missile in the cup, and released the lever. The weight at the
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short end pulled the arm down, and the missile end flew up in the air,
throwing the missile forward."
Curt stopped talking. Jim stared at him. The lanky young man had just gone up
several notches in Jim's opinion.
"Well," said Jim, after a moment. "I guess you're right and I'm wrong. In
fact, I know you're right and I'm wrong. I stand corrected."
"Oh, well," said Curt, uncomfortably. He got quickly to his feet. "While I
think of it, and now that the subject's come up, I think Til go ask Llalal if
he's got some wooden staves in his cargo we can make into quarterstaves. Want
to come?"
"Sure do," said Jim. They went back toward the cargo area of the ship,
together.
To Jim's surprise, Llalal did have staves. The surprise dwindled when he saw
the rag-bag assortment of cargo carried by Llalal's Own. The ship itself was
built on the order of a Chinese junk or rather, like an oversize sampan. It
was essentially a floating raft with a keel and built-up sides. This meant it
had no hold. Below the planks on which everyone stood, slept, and moved about
there was nothing but several layers of logs pegged and tied together with a
form of Quebahrian wire. This was why the timbers of the ship's body made so
much noise rubbing against each other every time the ship rolled.
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