Their walk back to the ship was without incident and once over the spaceport fence they were able to elude Coffin's patrols easily. From the after airlock they went straight up to Grimes' quarters where, before they had time to attempt to wash the pigment from their faces and hands, they were joined by Steerforth. The chief officer grinned as he looked at his black-faced captain and Grimes snapped, "Don't say it, Number One. Don't say it."
"Don't say what, sir?" asked Steerforth innocently.
"You were about to make some crack about nigger minstrels, weren't you?"
"Me, sir? Of course not." He leered at the women. "I was about to say that Shirl and Darleen—and you, Seiko—are black but comely." Then he became serious. "How did it go, sir?"
"Very well, Mr. Steerforth. Very well. We got some good tapes. They will be proof, I think, that the silkies are intelligent beings. But you know as well as I do how slowly the tide runs through official channels, especially when there are deliberately engineered obstructions. And, apart from anything else, it will be months before the tapes get to Admiral Damien—and during that time how many silkies will be slaughtered?"
"So there will have to be an incident," murmured Steerforth. "An incident, followed immediately by investigation by the Survey Service."
"And I, of course, shall be at ground zero of this famous incident," grumbled Grimes.
"Of course, sir. Aren't you always?"
"Unfortunately. And now I'm going to get this muck off my face and hands and get some sleep. Goodnight, all of you."
Everybody left him apart from Seiko. It was not the first time that he had shared a shower, but it was the first time that he had done so with a robot. (But he already knew that she was waterproof.)
He slept alone, however.
In the morning he did not join his officers for breakfast but enjoyed this meal, served by Seiko, in his day cabin. Then he sent for the chief officer.
He said, "I suppose that Flo and her gang are already in the workshop?"
"They are, sir."
"I'd like you to wander across sometime this morning. Get into a conversation with Cassie—I'm sure that Flo will be happy to dispense with her services. Make sure that you have this mutual ear-bashing where it can be overheard by whatever of Coffin's goons is lurking around to make sure that nothing is damaged or stolen by my engineers. Wonder, out loud, what the old bastard— me—is up to, sneaking out at night with those two cadets and that uppity little bitch of an assistant stewardess . . . "
"Captain-san, I am not an uppity little bitch!" protested Seiko.
But you're an uppity robot, he thought.
He said, "And I'm not an old bastard—at least, not in the legal sense of the word. Anyhow, you get the idea, Mr. Steerforth. Try to convey the impression that I and the ladies are Up To No Good. Nameless orgies out in the bush . . . "
"Can I come with you next time, sir?"
"Somebody has to mind the shop, and it's you. And, in any case, I don't think that you're doing too badly for yourself, from what I've noticed. Aunt Jemima, of late, has been serving your favorite dishes at almost every meal."
Steerforth flushed. "Ms. Clay and I have similar tastes, sir."
"Indubitably." Grimes laughed. "But shenannigans, sexual or otherwise, aboard the ship, are one thing. Shenanigans, especially sexual and indulged in by off-worlders, on the sacred soil of New Salem, are another thing. You're free to speculate—and the more wild the speculations the better. Perhaps on these lines. 'Maybe the old bastard and his three bitches are having it off with the silkies. I wouldn't put it past them. I've always suspected that the four of 'em are as kinky as all hell.' "
"And are you, sir?"
"Not especially."
"You have a very fertile mind, sir."
"Mphm. It runs in the family, I suppose. Oh, you might take a pocket recorder with you so that I can hear a play-back of the way that you'll be slandering me. It will all be part of the evidence."
"Not to be used against me, I hope, sir."
"If you like," said Grimes, "I'll give you written orders to traduce me."
Steerforth flushed again. "That, sir, will not be necessary," he said stiffly.
Late that evening Grimes and the three girls, their hands and faces again blackened, emerged from the ship. This time the sky was not overcast and the stars were bright in the sky; even Grimes experienced little difficulty in finding his way through the spaceport. As before there were the patrols, carrying their feeble oil lanterns. As before these were easily—too easily? wondered Grimes—eluded. The fence was scaled. Beyond it was the almost familiar bushland. It seemed to Grimes that the same path through it was being followed as before.
Suddenly Shirl whispered in his ear, "Stop here for a little while, John. Pretend to be lighting your pipe . . . ."
"Why pretend?" he muttered, pulling the foul thing from his pocket.
They stood there while Grimes went through his usual ritual.
"Yes," murmured Darleen. "As I thought . . . ."
" . . . we are being followed . . . " continued Shirl.
Somewhere behind them a twig cracked.
Grimes finished lighting his pipe.
"One man only . . . " breathed Darleen into his ear.
Grimes took his time over his smoke. Let the bastard wait, he thought, not daring to make another move until we move on.
Finally, "All right. Let's get the show on the road," he said in a normal voice.
He knocked out his pipe on the ground, stamped on the last faintly glowing embers to extinguish them. He moved off, letting Shirl take the lead. Darleen followed close behind him and Seiko brought up the rear. They came to the coast road, crossed it. They emerged on to the beach. The recording apparatus was set up on its tripod. Seiko divested herself of her clothing. Shirl and Darleen followed suit, one of them saying, "Let us have a swim first. What about you, John?"
He said, "The water's too bloody cold."
(If there was to be any confrontation he would prefer to be fully clothed.)
Shirl pressed herself against him in what must have looked like an amorous embrace. She whispered, "We might as well give the bastard an eyeful."
"The three of you can," he whispered back.
Seiko, her body palely luminous in the starlight, waded into the sea. The wavelets broke about her legs, her body, flashing phosphorescently. Shirl and Darleen followed her, flinging themselves full length as soon as there was enough depth. They sported exuberantly. It was as though they were swimming in a sea of liquid diamonds. "Come on in!" one of them called. "The water's fine!"
"Too cold for me!" Grimes shouted back—but if it had not been for that unseen watcher he would have joined them.
Finally they tired of their games and came wading into the beach. Droplets of slowly fading phosphorescence fell from their nipples, gleamed in their pubic hair. One did not have to be kinky, thought Grimes, to appreciate such a show. He wondered if he was appreciating it. No doubt his eyes were popping with wonderment, sinful lust and holy indignation.
"We should have brought towels," said Darleen practically, attempting to dry herself with her coverall.
"It is time that Seiko finished singing her song," said Shirl.
And now Seiko emerged from the sea, fully as beautiful as the two New Alicians, adorned as they had been by living jewels of cold fire. The silkies followed her, up on to the beach, grunting musically, and each of them was wearing a coat of radiant color. Grimes wondered how he could ever have thought them ugly.
"They bid you greeting, John," sang Shirl.
"Tell them that I am pleased to see them," replied Grimes.
What followed came as a surprise to him. He had been expecting a conversation—a conference? —such as the one in which he had taken part the previous night. But this was more of an orgy. The women—and Seiko was one of them—seemed to be determined to put on a show for Coffin's spy. Grimes sat there, his pipe for once forgotten, watching in wonderment. The naked human bodies— although one was human only in form—enter-twined with the darkly furred bodies of the sea beasts . . . The caresses, the musical murmurings . . . (These tapes, thought Grimes, who had his prudish moments, he would not be submitting to any higher authority back on Earth, he would not be showing to Steerforth back aboard the ship.) Pale female flesh sprawled over rich, dark fur . . . Flippers that caressed breasts and thighs with what he would have thought was impossible gentleness . . . .
And at the finish Seiko standing there, on a low, sea-rounded rock, while, one by one, the silkies each gently placed a flipper on her bare feet before sliding away, down into the sea. It seemed like (was it? could it be?) an act of obeisance, of worship even.
Grimes, his prominent ears still burning with embarrassment, filled and lit his pipe. He demanded, "What . . . " then fell silent.
"It is all right, John," Seiko told him. "We are alone again. He, the pastor's spy, is gone. Along the coast road. I am surprised that you did not hear him. He was not very cautious. Anyhow, you can talk without being overheard."
"I did not hear him," snapped Grimes. "There were too many other things to listen to. And watch. Just what, in the name of all the Odd Gods of the Galaxy, were the three of you up to?"
"You said that you wished to shock Pastor Coffin's people, John," Shirl told him.
"I didn't say that I wanted to be shocked. The worst of it was that the three of you seemed to be enjoying it."
"And why should we not?" asked Darleen sweetly. "Have you ever experienced the feel of soft, rich fur against your naked skin? And we learned, on your world, that many human women are not above enjoying sexual relations with their so-called pets, their cats and their dogs and the like."
"That's different!" almost shouted Grimes.
"How so, John?" asked Shirl. "Oh, all right. Those pets, on Earth, are not intelligent by human standards. The silkies are intelligent. Unfortunately, as far as we and they are concerned, our bodies are too . . . different."
"That will do," snapped Grimes. "Get dressed. And remember this, if Coffin's man has reported to his master, and if the patrolmen try to arrest us, the three of you are to use only such force as is required to prevent our capture. I want an incident, not a massacre. But I don't want to spend what's left of the night in Coffin's jail."
But he had no real fears of this latter. He already knew of the fighting capabilities of Shirl and Darleen and strongly suspected that Seiko, by herself, would be more than a match for a small army, provided that this army did not deploy nuclear weaponry.
Nonetheless they made their way back to the ship without incident.
Grimes told Steerforth a somewhat edited version of the night's doings.