Inside the Dragonfly, the crew were all crowded in the bridge area just behind the pilot's seats. Outside, the nightlife on Roche was just as hectic as during the day. Like the flouwen, the gummies had no need of sleep in the human sense, and with the rapid drying of the lake, the planet's inhabitants were fighting among themselves for the last of the food. The Dragonfly hovered on its VTOL fans over the gummie colony so that the plane would not be damaged accidently by the large gummie's last battles for territory. But the humans were all exhausted from the short day's excitement. Stunned by the loss of Little Red, they tried to comfort themselves.
"Why did he attack that thing?" Jinjur demanded. Her anger was a reaction to the loss of someone she felt responsible for. "Red should have stayed back by the ship, or at least should have kept his suit closed."
‡It was always Roaring*Hot*Vermillion's way. Always rushing ahead and giving his all without thinking of the cost to himself.‡
«All we can do is bring this last taste of him back to himself,» Little White said sadly. They all looked at the small vial with its pathetic puddle of red. Little White wanted very much to taste these last remnants of Little Red to see if he had known of his danger and if any messages remained in the sample, but the remaining flouwen had decided this was a task better handled by the rest of Roaring*Hot*Vermillion back on Eau.
Pooh had been humming the "Funeral March" quietly to himself, and it was really starting to get on Jinjur's nerves.
"But why did he interfere at all? I know that Loudest Beast was being attacked but Loud Red had just met him. Why did he interfere in what was clearly not his fight?" Shirley asked.
‡We would not leave Loudest Beast to fight such a battle alone. We had tasted his life and he is not an animal. Loudest Beast is a person and we have shared tastes. Loudest Beast is one of the Pod.‡ Little Purple was sounding at his most pompous, but no one felt like belittling him. That had been Little Red's job and, for a moment, the void left by his destruction was all the more poignant.
There was a long pause. "God! I am beat." said Richard. "Me too," Cinnamon admitted ruefully and she rubbed the back of her neck. She shifted uncomfortably the pilot's chair.
«Why don't you humans all get some of your sleep. Little Purple and I can take this shift,» Little White offered.
"That is a good suggestion," Juno conceded. "All of you are showing signs of fatigue and stress. I can keep the Dragonfly hovering in position just as well as a human pilot. If I notice anything strange, the flouwen can help me to decide what to do about it. We will certainly wake you if there is an emergency."
"Didn't we just decide that the flouwen are not too good at handling emergencies?" Jinjur asked sarcastically. She wasn't ready to turn their fate over to a couple of reactionary amoebas.
"Little Red was the only quick tempered one ." the computer started.
«And look where it got him. Believe me when I say we won't forget that lesson. All we are offering is to stand the watch. At this point, all we can do is watch the gummie colony and record what is going on. Should anything at all happen, we will call you.»
"Okay, okay," Jinjur conceded. "We'll give it a try. But Cinnamon, I want you to be sleeping right here on the bridge, just in case. The pilot's chair is comfortable enough. And I want be called instantly, instantly! if there is even a suspicion of anything different happening out there."
"Aye, aye, sir," said Cinnamon giving a smart salute above her right eye.
«‡Aye, aye, sir!»‡ The flouwen echoed, imitating Cinnamon by giving the General smart salutes, gloved "hands" touching just above the looking lenses in the helmets of their suits.
Jinjur's hostility and guilt disappeared with this display of respect and attention. She giggled at the sight of the saluting flouwen and led the other humans off the bridge to the sleeping quarters at the rear of the aeroplane, her laughter ringing down the corridor ahead of them.
Cinnamon woke to find herself no longer in the pilot's seat. Instead she was cradled in Pooh's arms in the corridor leading to the flight deck. For a moment, sleep clouded her mind but then she snapped to awareness.
"What's happened? Have you called Jinjur?"
=Nothing is wrong. Hush! I am supposed to be keeping you comfortable, and if Clear«»White«»Whistle knows I let you wake up, he will be loud at me.=
"What is going on?" Cinnamon whispered.
=Clear«»White«»Whistle wants to learn more about flying the aerospace plane and you were in the way. He and Strong‡Lavender‡Crackle are taking turns. One watches out the window for any sign of danger and the other gets to play with the controls while Juno operates the simulator program.=
"But why do they bother?"
=Someday, other humans will come. The tastes of all we learn will be passed on to all of the flouwen, and wherever the humans land on Eau, they will be greeted by flouwen who can recognize them. The next time we meet you humans we do not want to be treated like younglings.=
"We don't treat you like younglings! We think you are the most amazing people we have ever met. It's just that you don't do things the way we humans do, and we are too used to being in charge."
Little White heard them talking and joined the discussion. «We will never be able to make these wonderful metal devices that you humans use. Even if we could come up with designs that would work even better, we simply are not able to manipulate matter in order to fabricate things. Is it any wonder that we envy you, and want to learn how to operate every bit of equipment you have? Maybe, someday, we will have such wonders of our own, but whatever technology our species will ever use, it will have to be made by you humans.»
Silently, the flouwen continued to guard and study the marvels of the elegant Dragonfly. Rocking back and forth on the rounded bottom of his drysuit, Pooh started singing a lullaby. Cinnamon soon fell asleep with a deep-seated feeling of security.
When Jinjur woke, her internal clock was sounding alarms. "Juno?" she called. "What time is it?"
"Barnard will rise on this section of the planet in twenty minutes."
"But . I feel as if I have rested for more than three hours."
"Correct. You have slept for eight point seven hours."
"What!" Jinjur rolled off her bunk and began pulling on her jumpsuit.
"Since you have been on the planet, you have all tried to conform to the local six-hour day. The human body prefers to function on a twenty-four hour schedule. All of the crew has been suffering from fatigue. I reported to Prometheus that everything here was under control, and George decided you needed the sleep."
"Juno ." Jinjur started dangerously.
"I have recorded everything, and not only the flouwen but the crew on the Prometheus have monitored everything. Shall I tell George that you are awake now?"
"I'll tell him, thank you," Jinjur said as she strode toward the bridge. When she reached the flight deck, Cinnamon was awake in the pilot's chair, but the her face was lined with creases from sleep. Jinjur went back to the communications console and opened up a link to Prometheus. Cinnamon noticed that the Christmas Branch came down the aisle and stood between Jinjur and Cinnamon, the cilia on its body generating sound waves that exactly canceled the sound waves coming from Jinjur's mouth as she conversed with George. Through the twinkling branches of the Christmas Bush, Cinnamon could see Jinjur's grim jaw working overtime. George would think twice before he adjusted the general's orders again, even if it was for her own good. Jinjur finally came forward and asked Cinnamon to set the Dragonfly down on the top of the mating hill as they had done before.
The storms had ceased and Cinnamon landed the plane easily. Since it was her shift, she would stay in the plane this time to act as pilot, while the rest of the crew suited up to go outside. Cinnamon didn't mind. While the Littles had been fighting the monster gummie, Cinnamon had taken samples of the dozens of predators and scavengers that had fed on the fight. The plants would be best collected in seed form anyway, and Cinnamon trusted Sam and Richard to pick up plenty of samples in with the rocks they were sure to bring back.
«We have been busy all night too,» said Little White as he joined Cinnamon and Jinjur on the flight deck. Little Purple was right behind. «We have been working with Juno and we now know we will be able to fly the Dragonfly without human help. You will be leaving the aeroplane and the drysuits on Eau when you leave, so we have made plans to fly the Dragonfly over to Roche and bring the gummies over to Eau.»
"What!" Fresh from her battle with George, Jinjur rose to the challenge she heard in the flouwens voice. "There is no way we are going to let you ."
Nels voice came in from the Falcon back on Eau. He had been going to check in with Cinnamon to ask about her samples, when he caught the end of Little White's announcement. He was outraged enough to interrupt the general. "We can not introduce the gummies into the Eau ecosystem!"
«We will isolate them. We will bring them to the island in the center of the lake that Roaring*Hot*Vermillion was trapped in. If the gummies stay on the island .»
"But they can walk!" objected Nels. "How are we going to insure that they stay only in the lake?"
"That is beside the point!" Jinjur was furious. "We aren't going to allow ."
This time it was George that interrupted her. "Not only are you talking about changing the ecosystem of the island on Eau, you are going to change the whole development of the gummies. We can use the mathematics of the flouwen without endangering the creativity of the human race but we mustn't change the culture, such as it is, of the flouwen and the gummies. They have to develop in their natural state so that they can reach their full potential."
‡How can the gummies reach their full potential when they are forced to spend their time in hibernation during the time when there is nothing to eat?‡
"They have developed into a race that can deal with such periods of drought!" Nels objected. "Given enough time, they will develop further on their own!"
"They have to develop on their own in order to find their own destiny," George concurred.
"And if it's their destiny to become extinct?" Cinnamon objected.
"Then something else will fill their niche in the ecosystem!" Nels said. "I can't believe you would even suggest that we interfere! Look at all the times humans have, in their arrogance, decided what was best for a species, only to have it backfire."
"Exactly!" George agreed. "We must not interfere."
«You have all ready interfered. You have come to Eau and shown the flouwen all the possibilities of technology. We can not just go back to riding the waves and thinking about esoteric logic problems. You have shown us all the different uses our mathematics can be put to, and you can not just .»
"Oh, can't we?" Jinjur exploded. "Just watch. We can scuttle this plane any time we want. We won't put up with any more of this nonsense of you taking the gummies anywhere!"
"Humans only," George called, and the computer stopped translating their conversation to the flouwen. "Look here, Jinjur. We want to keep the flouwen on our side. We don't want to lose their mathematical insight."
"Whose side are you on? We can't let them try and bring the whole gummie colony over to Eau . and who knows how many other colonies there are?"
"But we have to convince them, not force them. Nels has some very valid reasons why they need to keep both planets balanced. If we humans are interfering, then let's at least interfere with good advice. Let the gummies and flouwen benefit from human experience."
"But will they take that advice the way we want them to?" asked Jinjur. She had regained her temper, but she still had doubts. "The flouwen look at our accomplishments and they are impressed. Sure we almost ruined our own planet, but it got us to the stars. They may want to emulate even our mistakes."
"I don't see them emulating us ." said George.
"Wait a moment," Cinnamon interrupted. "I think you have forgotten to look at this from the flouwen point of view. How would we humans have reacted if a bunch of aliens came down and showed us all kinds of new concepts, and gave us huge advances in knowledge . but then told us we couldn't use any of it the way we wanted? After all, Rocheworld is ."
"Roche-worrld iss ourss," whistled a strange voice from the water.
Stunned, the humans looked around. "Juno?" Jinjur asked quietly, although she all ready knew the answer.
"I am not translating," the computer confirmed.
"We talk to pod at Agua Dul-ce. All say we help gum-mies."
"The flouwen have been using the console at Agua Dulce for many hours, talking to all the members in their pod," the computer said. "They used the chemical mode of transmitting information back and forth to each other, and I have not yet been able to decode it. I recorded it for later decoding when the flouwen decide to tell me what it was they discussed. With that information it should not take too long to figure out their chemical language," Juno finished complacently.
"That's not important now," said Jinjur, exasperated. "We have to ." The flouwen's ability to understand what she was saying about them made her pause.
"There is nothing we can do," said George. "The flouwen are right. They didn't invite us here. Maybe if we had known they were here, we would have decided not to come down and disturb them, but I doubt it. Humans are too curious. But the fact is, we have disrupted their lives, and we are not the best judges as to where they should go from here. Even after our interference, it is up to the flouwen to determine the fate of the flouwen."
"But we can't let them ruin their world just because it's more theirs than ours," Nels objected. "After all, it is also the planet of the flitters and the gingersnaps and all the plants and animals that live there."
"But we can't act like a parent that gives a child a gun and then tells it not to shoot at anything." Jinjur realized that a partial victory was better than complete defeat, and had come around to the flouwen's side. "What we have to do, is act like a responsible parent and show the damage that can be done if the child is not careful. We have to guide the flouwen so they don't do too much damage."
The whistling voice again rose from the water. "Flouwen not child. Know Eau to small for gummies. Teach gummies to change Roche."
Another voice came from the water, this one had a harsh, brittle tone. "Yes. Teach gummies save water. Make lake all time."
"We could do that!" cried Cinnamon. "If instead of the gummies just maintaining their own territories, we could teach them to dam up the exit channels from the lake and make collector channels for the rain. The lake would stay full of water all year and they could share —Jinjur! Can the computer go back to translating? I want to be sure the Littles get all of this."
"Yes, of course." What had ever made her think Cinnamon was shy?
"The gummies can dig channels so that the water that would normally just run out onto the plains and sink into the sands would all be directed to the lake. They could also make dams that would block the outflow channels from the lake and keep the water impounded for longer. It would take years before the lake would keep water for the whole year so the colony would be able to stay awake the whole season."
«But it is the gummies that need to learn these things, and they can not learn them here in the dust. We will need to bring some of them back to Eau, long enough for them to learn these things in a place with water. If we take a few gummies to Red's Lake, they can learn these things. We can then bring them back to Roche after the next flood time to teach the others.»
"Like a gummie college!" said Cinnamon.
"I don't like any of this ." said Nels. "Will you at least follow a few rules?"
‡We are open to suggestions.‡
"First, be choosy about the gummies you bring over. And just bring over gummies. No wild plants or animals that could get loose and damage the Eau ecosystem. Since they can eat flouwen food, then they don't need to bring anything else with them, and it will limit the damage they do to Eau."
«How do we choose gummies?»
"Ask Loudest Beast," suggested Nels.
The scene of yesterday's fight was barren now, as the humans walked again on the surface. The whole landscape before them had changed. The temporary lake had drained away into the surrounding plains where it had soaked into the sands, and the bottom of the lake was hardly more than a dark damp patch of mud. On the high shores, the gummies were all preparing for their long rest in the earth. The suited explorers easily found Loudest Beast. The gummie was the only one not already half-buried in the drying mud.
"Why aren't you dug in with the others?" Jinjur asked.
<<I was hoping that by waiting I might be able to get back some of the territory I lost.>>
It was true that Loudest Beast had lost much of the depression it had claimed before. Saddened by the loss of the pouchling, and weakened in the fight, Loudest Beast had not had the strength to defend all the land it had staked out before. The body of Gigantic Grabber had fed most of the colony, but Loudest Beast's neighbors were ruthless. When Loudest Beast had limped back in the dark, most of the boundary stones of his territory had been shifted inward. It just didn't seem worth the effort to fight, now that there was no child to feed, and teach, and talk to throughout the long hibernation.
‡You will not need to worry about territory. We have come to take you back with us to Everwet.‡
<<Can you really take me?>> Loudest Beast seemed to have lost all confidence. <<I only wish I could have brought my pouchling to keep me company.>>
«We want to bring some others too .» Little White insisted, hoping to get the gummie interested in life again. He remembered the taste of the lonely life of a gummie that Loudest Beast had shared with the three flouwen. Clear«»White«»Whistler couldn't imagine having to be all alone. «Are their any of the other People who might want to go to Everwet?»
The gummie thought. <<Well, I could ask Screaming Killer. Screaming Killer was a youngling of mine and was always asking questions. I think he would like to live where one could spend more time thinking about other things than mere survival.>>
«Good! He sounds like an ideal person. Where is Screaming Killer?»
<<He should be rooting on the other side of the lake.>>
"You mean the puddle," Richard snorted, once Little White translated. Richard took several samples of the liquid mud. He swirled the mud around in one of the transparent sample bottles and looked carefully at it.
"Pretty clean, for mud," he said. "I don't expect I'll find much organic material left, except an occasional seed. Looks like the animal scavengers have eaten every last leaf, twig, and root of the plant life that had recently flourished here."
The party made its way across the sticky pool and up the slope on the other side. Dotting the ground were the shallow bowls that the humans now recognized as gummie territories. Many of the gummies were almost completely buried. They worked their way down into the softened ground, spreading out a network of tiny roots that would feed the gummie during the worst of the drought.
The gummies watched the incoming group with suspicion, and many growled a warning, but they weren't interested in fighting. Secure in their separate territories, and busy teaching the basics to their new pouchlings, they didn't see anything to warrant fighting. As they approached, Loudest Beast called out for Screaming Killer and it was clear that whatever these odd happenings portended, it didn't affect the rest of the colony. Finally, in a rather poor spot near the top of the hill, one of the gummies answered Loudest Beast's call.
<<Parent! Why are you calling me?>> Screaming Killer rose up from the rocky mud. Loudest Beast was proud to see the bulge in Screaming Killer's middle and the thin arm that was still regenerating.
<<I have met some wise beings that fly through the sky like the water. They can take some People back to Everwet if they wish to try to make the journey. Come and share the taste of their offer.>> Loudest Beast extended his arm. Screaming Killer would be able to taste that even if Loudest Beast no longer carried a pouchling, the elder had been accepted as mate and was not fleeing the colony in disgrace.
Screaming Killer tasted his parent's tendril and absorbed the memory of the last day. Not only did he get the flavor of the flouwen and their life on Eau, but he also got Loudest Beast's opinion of their actions. Loudest Beast was not only intrigued with the flouwen's life and their cooperative tactics, but was impressed with their obvious happiness, and willingness to waste time on things other than eating.
Screaming Killer was still young enough to wonder if the life hiss parent had prepared him for was the best that could be expected. Further, Screaming Killer was overwhelmed with the feelings of parenthood. His pouchling, so small and helpless and loving, needed to be fed and taught. Screaming Killer passionately needed to secure for this tiny being the best life possible. Screaming Killer drew back in the roots he had sunk into the surface and moved forward. He extended a tendril toward Little White, who used his pseudopod to guide it into his suit opening. They shared tastes of each other.
This time Little White didn't have to rock up to make sense of all the information he was given. When they broke contact, Little White immediately shared with Little Purple all that the gummie had passed to him. The gummie, however, was greatly affected. How could Screaming Killer believe that such a fabulous place existed where there was water all the time and new ones could be made and grow up with ever having to fear starvation? But it was not possible for flouwen to send a false taste . Screaming Killer bellowed with joy that such a miracle could happen within his life time.
"What's he doing?" asked Jinjur, wincing as the suit compensated to protect her ears.
‡I believe Screaming Killer is coming along.‡
By the time they returned to the ship, they had two other gummies who had followed the gummie side of the conversation and had had enough curiosity to investigate. One was a yearling named Baby Eater who, unlike Screaming Killer, had not managed to find a mate. With little territory and no reputation in the colony, Baby Eater had nothing to lose by leaving. For a moment, Loudest Beast had even thought of turning the youngster away, but he, too, was in a weakened state. Besides, coming up to the humans at all proved Baby Killer was not without courage. To Loudest Beast's surprise the other adventurer was his neighbor Flesh Burner. Loudest Beast had figured that this strong Person would eclipse Loudest Beasts abandoned prime property. Instead, Flesh Burner turned out to be very like Screaming Killer. It too had spent much time wondering about the limitations of colony life and had even gone so far as to wonder if things could get better if the People worked together. Needless to say, the newest space travelers were pleased to be joined by the colony's First Mated.
As Barnard set over the gummie colony, it was possible to see why the humans had missed the life on Roche. The "lake" was now plates of cracked mud and the People were completely underground. The slight hollows and markers that formed each of the separate territories, now looked like uncomplicated, water eroded hills. Sealing the gummies in the airlock where their ammonia smell would not affect the crew, the Dragonfly and its multi-species passengers gently lifted off for Eau.
It didn't take long to get the gummies settled in Everwet. Richard and Sam designed a series of dams, catch basins, and collecting channels that would help bring extra rainwater runoff down into the moat-like lake and at the same time teach the gummies the elementary principles of hydrology and irrigation. The gummies began work on the channels immediately. Having spent a good deal of their lives underground, the gummies were adapt at working in the soil and proved to be efficient diggers.
The gummies also learned to care for the new plants and animals that now made up their diet and soon the resources of the marshy island were plenty for the small colony. Most importantly, now that they were no longer driven by desperate hunger, they were able to overcome their normal dog-eat-dog survival-of-the-fittest mentality and learned to cooperate with each other.
"The flouwen have gone and done it now," said Nels grimly, as he watched one of the gummies teach another gummie how to use a thin flat rock as a hoe to dig dirt faster.
"What do you mean?" said Cinnamon. "The flouwen, being the superior beings, had an obligation to help their less fortunate distant relations. Now that they have brought some of the smarter gummies over to Eau so they can think and learn in peace, those gummies can go back and bring the ideas of cooperation and water collection to the colonies on Roche so they can eliminate the old harsh lifestyle of the average gummie."
"That old lifestyle, harsh though it was, had a purpose," said Nels. "The gummies are more than distant relations of the flouwen. They are their evolutionary replacements."
"What?!"
"Yes. I didn't want to tell the flouwen. They will figure it out themselves in time. But while the flouwen have developed intellectually and philosophically, the gummies are flouwen who were forced by their harsh environment to develop physically. They have a permanent shape that gives them greater freedom than the flouwen, while allowing them to survive greater variations in climate. They can and do use tools to manipulate the world around them. The flouwen, for all their intelligence, have never developed tools or agriculture. Now, because of this interference by the flouwen, there is nothing to hold the gummies back from taking over both worlds." He gave a resigned sigh.
"But, it probably was only a matter of time anyway. The gummies, even in their present savage state, are intellectually above the chimpanzees on Earth. Had we arrived some ten thousand years later than we did, we would have found the flouwen much the same, still happily playing and surfing and solving mathematical theorems for recreation. But the gummies might just have flown out to meet us."
Jinjur linked through to John up on the Prometheus. "John? I understand you are trying to help James with Carmen."
"Yes, General, but we aren't getting anywhere. She seems to hear what we are saying to her, but it is as if she were too busy with what ever she is thinking about, to give what we say any consideration."
"Look, John. I want you to bring someone else in on this. I know that we decided that Carmen should be kept isolated until she feels up to seeing the others, but I think you ought to have Reiki talk to her."
"The anthropologist? I wouldn't have thought that the two of them would have anything in common."
"Reiki is a wild card I've been holding," Jinjur explained. "And its now time for me to play it. She has a quality that I think Carmen could really profit from right now."
"Look, I know that Reiki can be a very relaxing person to be around, but come on! She is an etiquette freak and the last thing Carmen needs is to be concerned about ."
"The first thing Carmen needs is to feel secure. Haven't you ever wondered why Reiki is so 'relaxing to be around?' I always go talk to her when ever there is something that is troubling me. Sometimes I don't even discuss the problem with her. She just has a sort of unflappable serenity that seems to spread out to everyone around her."
John stopped objecting. He had felt it too.
"I think," said Jinjur "That her peace stems from her preoccupation with manners and etiquette. She knows the correct way to handle anything—anything that happens around her. Nothing can offend her, because anything offensive she simply won't acknowledge. Reiki told me when she interviewed for the mission that she could get along with anyone, and that at some point I would appreciate how important that was. Since then, I have appreciated it; I've been impressed by it. I think that kind of peace and poise is exactly what Carmen needs."
John was quiet. "Maybe you're right. Certainly it wouldn't hurt." As he signed off, there was gentle knock at the sick bay door. John had to smile. Of all those on board, only Reiki would knock rather than have James announce her. He opened the door to her with a flourish and left her alone with Carmen.
Reiki looked down at the tiny women who was laying on her side, her lips moving shapelessly as she struggled to come to grips with everything that had happened. Reiki pulled herself even with her face and began to speak slowly.
"Carmen, I don't know what happened . and I can't even begin to understand, and it really isn't even important that I know. But you need to know and to begin to deal with it. Right now, it is all feelings and memories. You need to put it into something you can get a grip on. Write it down. Write it all down just as it comes to you. Turn all those feelings into words. Words are solid. Words can be dealt with."
Carmen look at her with a hint of recognition in her eyes. Reiki lifted her easily in the low gravity and set her before the touchscreen console on the desk in her room. James had anticipated her and the touchscreen was ready with a blank blue screen. As Reiki left the room, she heard a quiet tapping, as Carmen slowly began putting words on the screen.
John checked on her a few hours later, when James let him know that Carmen was making no more entries. He found her asleep, in the first deep natural sleep she had in days. He glanced at the screen. The little communications expert had filled disc after disc with her rambling story . but John had grown too in the last few weeks. He turned off the screen without reading her pain, and left her in the quiet darkness.
"Nels, I have been looking over that paper you prepared for the Phasereport," said Jinjur. She had come into the lab he had set up on the Falcon. "It looks like you've come up with a breakthrough in tissue regeneration."
"Yes. Green Fizzer and I have developed a paste that seems to have the desired effect."
"And you're sure it works?"
"We've had John up on the Prometheus try applying some to the toe he lost to frostbite. It is a new wound, and the regrowth has been remarkable. Not only has the toe completely regenerated in only a week, but the new toe is as sensitive as the old one was. There seems to be complete nerve regeneration . John even claims it has the same freckle as the old one."
"Well! We'll have to send this all to Earth immediately! This is incredible! It is only a shame that we will have to wait six years to see how effective it will be on others!"
"Actually, I'm planning on trying it out on myself," said Nels calmly.
"Look, Nels," Jinjur frowned. "I'm sure that you would like to have normal legs just as soon as possible, but we simply haven't the time. We need you working with the flouwen. I can't have you spending all your time in a womb just because you want to be normal ."
"Normal!" Nels exploded. For once he lost his diffidence towards his commander. "I am normal! I have been this way all my life and while it might not be normal to you, it is to me. Oh, if I had been consulted, I would have preferred my mother not to have had that accident in her chemistry lab, but I am the way I am, and I like my life. Having legs might have made things different, and different could well be worse!
"Yes, I am planning to go into that womb and be stuck there for months. But I am doing it only because I can't very well ask anyone else to! Richard has already refused to let me try and regrow his toes. I can't very well go around hoping that some one else will volunteer to let me cut off part of them just so I can try to grow it back!"
Nels took off one of his prosthetic legs and shook his flipper at her. He wiggled his toes and clenched them into a twisted fist. Awkwardly he held it up to her face. "These are my legs. They have always been my legs and I find them useful. I no more want to cut them off than you would want to cut off yours. If this paste does not work, I will be left with stumps. I will truly be handicapped then, but I am willing to risk it. Not for my ego, not in the name of "normality", but because if it works for me, it will work for anyone; anyone in this crew, anyone on Earth." He replaced the limb and walked straight and tall out of the lab without waiting to be dismissed.
Jinjur sat for a moment, digesting all he had said. All along she had been looking at Nels through a dark mirror of her own prejudice. He was special not because of his legs, nor despite them. He was just a very special person. Silently she thanked George for seeing what she had missed for so long and his insistence that Nels come with them to the stars. She called up to the Prometheus.
"John? I want you to set up that artificial womb in sick bay after all. We'll want for Nels to be able to out of it by the time we reach Gargantua and start preparations for landing on one of the moons, so have it ready for him when we reach the ship."
"Jinjur?" George cut in. "There is word from the landers on Gargantua's moon, Zulu. There is intelligent life there!"
"Explain!"
Suddenly there was not enough time to do anything. With Juno helping, the flouwen had rapidly become adept at flying the Dragonfly aeroplane. The nuclear reactor that gave the Dragonfly essentially unlimited range, had a lifetime of decades, so the flouwen would be able to use the aeroplane either until they crashed it or the next mission came from Earth. With the Dragonfly available, the flouwen would be able to ferry the gummies back and forth from Roche to Everwet. They could even fly up to meet an ascent module at the zero-gee point when the human and flouwen explorers on Prometheus revisited Rocheworld later in the mission. In the meantime, the flouwen and the gummies would have access to Prometheus and the Earth through the laser communication center at Agua Dulce.
Their next landing target, the Gargantuan moon Zulu, was covered with an ocean. It had two known dominant lifeforms, one living on the surface and the other in the ocean depths. George and Jinjur agreed that because of the ocean, the flouwen could be of real help in exploring the giant moon, and it was decided to bring along three of the flouwen from Eau.
The three flouwen Littles, Little Red, Little White, and Little Purple, would travel on the Falcon ascent module in their drysuits for the short trip up to Prometheus. There, they would transfer to a special tank on the hydroponics deck that had been filled with an ammonia-water solution and fitted with artificial volcanic vents to make it as much like home as possible for the flouwen and their living food supply. For the trip up to Prometheus, Nels filled the water tank in the center of the ascent module with all the Rocheworld plants and animals they had collected.
=I want to go!= Pooh said, as they humans and Littles stood on the beach ready to say their goodbyes.
*We have gone over that,* said a revitalized Little Red. *You have to stay here. It is dangerous in space and you are just a youngling. Besides, if something happens to one of us Littles, at least there is the rest of us here on the planet. You still concentrate when you go in your suit. If you died, all of you would be gone!*
Little Red would not miss this chance to explore with his friends. The last taste they brought back from his first adventure had been filled with the love and respect the first Little Red had felt for the humans. Now he was going with them into space.
‡You are young,‡ Little Purple said pacifically. ‡There will be other humans along soon, and if you show yourself worthy maybe you can go to space with them.‡
Pooh was rocking back and forth in anxiety. =But what if I am not worthy! I do not fit in with the others. They do not understand me! Who will I sing with?=
"But Pooh," Cinnamon said, pushing her way through the humans to hold onto the huge silver baggie with the yellow gumdrop head. "You will always be able to talk to us on the console at Agua Dulce. David and I, we will sing with you anytime you want. Besides, someone has to show the other flouwen how wonderful music is. And what about the gummies? I don't know if they have heard you singing at all. Won't it be fun to teach them?"
Pooh stopped rocking. =I can do that,= he said hesitantly.
"Of course you can. And you need to pass on pretending into a suit to the others too. You are too important for us to risk taking off planet." She gave the flouwen one last hug. "I love you . Make me proud."
With that she hurried back up the ladder of the Falcon. The other humans said their goodbye and soon, with as loud a roar as announced their arrival, they lifted off. Behind them they left two alien cultures who's fate had been inexorably altered.
Three weeks later, Carmen and Reiki were working together quietly. Jinjur had assigned Carmen the task of collecting the reports from the rest of the crew of their findings on Rocheworld. These reports would be put together into a Phase II report that would be a summary of the second planetary mission of the Barnard Star Expedition. Jinjur would normally be in charge of that administrative task, but she felt that doing that important but dull duty would be good therapy to get Carmen back as a functioning part of the crew.
Although Carmen was slowly feeling better, she still didn't have much to do with any one but John and the anthropologist. Carmen saw a lot of Cinnamon, who was helping with Nels in the sick bay, but when the first sign of leg buds appeared below his hip joints, Nels had been asking for more and more of Cinnamon's time. Carmen suspected there was more going on there than work. The rest of the crew were all too excited at all the new information coming in from Zulu to visit the walking wounded, Carmen told herself, but the truth was, she tried to avoid them.
She worked a little each day and talked a lot to John and James. At their suggestion, she wrote a letter to her uncle. Although he had died long ago, it still helped to confront his ghost with all he had done to her. But James had made one restriction. The letter, no matter what she said in it, must be no longer than one page.
Each day she trimmed off a tiny bit of her litany of complaints. She consolidated and forgave and simplified and forgot. Today she wrote her final draft of that letter, the draft that James had intended she write. It was only two lines. It said: "You hurt me. I didn't deserve it, but I am strong, and despite you I will be okay." Then she sent it off to earth. There was no one to receive it, but she sent it any way. Finally, she was able to stop thinking about it.
They had not really talked about what had happened to her; Carmen saved those details for John and her letter, but Reiki had lent her gentle presence to Carmen, doing most of her work in Carmen's room as Carmen read or watched videos or napped. Somehow Carmen knew that to Reiki she didn't need to explain anything, but there was still the others.
"Reiki?" Carmen asked. "I want to eat in the mess now. I miss seeing the others. But what do I say to them? What if they ask?"
"If they ask, they are being rude. You are under no obligation to explain to anyone. You might feel more comfortable if you apologize to Jinjur about missing work, but with that apology need come no excuses. To any inappropriate questions, you respond with a faint smile and a raised eyebrow. Surely, they couldn't have said anything so boorish. Surely, you must have heard wrong. And you don't hear them until they get it right."
Carmen laughed. It was the first real laugh Reiki had ever heard from her. "You're absolutely right . and stop calling me Shirley!"
Technical Report BSE-TR-70-080July 2070