THE STRONG AND THE HELPLESS

This story is strongly related to the stories "So Quiet" and "Alone With Them." It is yet another different-universe version of the same concept.

            Smith had been a nervous wreck during the entire ride in the chariot. Robinson and West had asked, urged, cajoled, and prodded him to tell them what was bothering him, to no avail. Now stopped, setting up the camp for the night, they couldn't help but notice that he constantly kept in motion, making sure that he was wherever they weren't, never allowing himself to get within arm's length of either of them, or caught between the two of them.

            Finally, they had had it. West demanded, "Smith, what are you up to?"

            The older man was affronted. "Nothing! Actually, I've been wondering what you two are up to."

            "Us??" Robinson was stunned by the question.

            Voice quivering, Smith demanded, "What are you going to do to me???"

            "Come again?" insisted West. "Why do you think we're going to do anything to you??"

            "Well, you were so angry with me yesterday...."

            "That was yesterday."

            "And you both threatened to hurt me...."

            "But we didn't do it," Robinson reminded him.

            "And then you forced me to accompany you today...."

            "So?"

            "So, you must be planning some dreadful punishment!"

            "Such as?"

            "Such as what you always threaten! You wanted to get me alone! Away from the others! So they couldn't try to talk you out of it! Or so they wouldn't see what you were going to do! How bad are you going to hurt me??!" Smith whimpered, still keeping his distance.

            The two younger men dropped the tools that they had just unloaded and stared at him, and then at each other, baffled.

            "Smith, if we were going to hurt you, we'd have done it yesterday," Robinson told him.

            "Really?" Smith wondered faintly. "But then, why did you make me come here with you today?"

            "To keep an eye on you. So that you couldn't cause mischief back at the ship while we were gone," explained West.

            "Oh." Smith nearly collapsed in relief. "Oh!" He stood gasping, overwhelmed.

            They shook their heads at him.

            Robinson said in near disbelief, "So you thought that we dragged you out here to...."

            "To beat me." The older man was very pale. "And probably kill me in the process." He shivered.

            West insisted, "Kill you?? You thought we might kill you???"

            "Well, maybe not on purpose. But, if you ever do beat me, I don't see how I could survive it. I've seen you two fight with aliens. And I'm not tough like they are. You two are so strong and powerful and dangerous! And I'm so helpless and vulnerable and fragile!"

            Robinson sagged in disbelief. "Smith. We would never beat you severely like we do alien enemies."

            "You wouldn't???"

            West agreed, "No! We'd take it much easier on you. We wouldn't hurt you a tenth of what we do to them."

            Smith's legs gave out from under him then, and he sat down hard from the stress and the fear and the relief. He just sat there panting, and luxuriating in the fact that he no longer felt compelled to keep out of their reach.

            The two men regarded him sympathetically, exchanged a glance, and moved slowly and nonthreateningly to sit near him.

            Smith babbled, "I never knew that. I always assumed that when you finally completely lost your temper with me, that you would hurt me the same as I've seen you do to others many times. And today, I was sure that this was it. I couldn't imagine any other reason why you would force me to accompany you out here, to the middle of nowhere, leaving all of the others behind. And on the day after you were so angry with me yet again."

            "Oh, Smith. I'm truly sorry," Robinson told him. "We never intended to put you in such a state."

            "We had no idea," West added.

            Haltingly, Smith went on, "I thought you knew...how afraid of you I am...have always been...since the day I first met you. You two are scary! You frighten me when you make fists at me. I never know what to do. I know I can't outrun you. The only thing I can think of is to beg you for mercy. But you always seem too angry to listen. I feel so vulnerable!"

            "Come here. Come on." Robinson gestured, offering to allow Smith to rest his head on the taller man's shoulder.

            After only a brief hesitation, Smith accepted gratefully, but still tremblingly.

            West watched them for a moment. Then, he said, "It's getting chilly." He grabbed a blanket, spread it carefully over the two of them, seated himself on the other side of Smith and nestled under the blanket as well, saying, "Let's conserve body heat by sharing."

            The three lay there a while in comfortable silence.

            Then, Smith turned shyly toward West. "Major? Do you remember the time that you and I were trapped in a cave and sure that we were going to die of asphyxiation?"

            "How could I forget?"

            "And we made up...made friends?"

            "Yeah. We did."

            "I know that it was my fault that it didn't last. I was the one that messed it up, after the Professor rescued us. I just wasn't thinking, and it was simply too easy to fall back into familiar patterns."

            "I understood that."

            "I wish.... Could we...try again?"

            West smiled. "Of course. Zachary."

            Smith smiled back, with only a slightly-trembling lip. "Thank you, Don." Then, he turned to Robinson. "Professor? Do you think we could try, too?"

            "To be friends?" he smiled. "Sure. Zachary." His smile broadened.

            "Thank you. John."

            Their hands found each other beneath the blanket. After they shook hands, Smith continued to hang on, and Robinson did not object. West's hand found their two and joined them. The three fell asleep like that, in peace.