Tortoise Reform

by Piers Anthony

  "I was not suggesting that,” Indigo thought quickly. “I was merely bringing out a somewhat hidden point."

  "A good one,” Owl thought. “We can't make a sensible decision without full information."

  "I'll do it!” Rowan thought. “Whatever you want to see!"

  There was a general murmur of acceptance. The burrow mates found this reasonable. Indigo realized that he was committed despite his reservation.

  He slithered toward the girl. “Put down an arm,” he thought to her.

  "I can pick you up,” she thought.

  "I prefer to make my own way."

  "Oh—like Owl.” She put down an arm.

  Indigo resented the notion that he was like Owl; a snake was not at all like a bird. But he slithered across her hand and wrist, and on up to her shoulder. He looped twice around her neck, loosely, getting comfortable. “Now stand and walk."

  "Okay.” She straightened up. “Uh, when do we meet again? I mean, with the rest of you."

  "I will return here when finished,” Indigo told her. “I will join the others in the burrow and report."

  "Oh. Sure,” she agreed without enthusiasm. He realized that she had wanted to meet the others again. But that was not the point of this mission.

  "We will meet again when we have a decision,” Gopher thought as he and the others proceeded up the ramp and into the hole.

  "Okay.” But it was clear that this was less than the girl wanted.

  "Why do you wish to associate with us?” Indigo asked as they made their way out of the cave.

  "Because I'm lonely and being with you is like family,” she replied. “I mean, with your minds—the moment I'm near you, I know you, and we can be friends."

  "Family? Friends?"

  She laughed, a human mannerism. “Like burrow mates. You're a group, and you get along so great, and I like being a part of it, even if it's only for a little while."

  They emerged from the cave. Light shone down; they were in the sink hole Gopher and Owl had described. “I can make my own way here,” Indigo thought.

  "Okay.” She put down her arm, and he uncoiled and slithered to the ground. “Gee—you're a big snake. You must be five feet long, and thick."

  "As a species we are the largest of our region,” Indigo agreed. “Not all species are of a size to become sapient.” He slithered rapidly up the rocky slope.

  She was scrambling up after him. “That's something I don't understand. I know sapient means smart, but how come it doesn't apply to all animals in your world?"

  "We are not sure. It may be that a certain mass of body is required to enable mind communication without spoiling it. Lizards and mice have small sharp thoughts, while bears and humans have large dull thoughts. Insects and worms don't have intelligent thoughts, but some larger fish do."

  "I'm human. How come I have smart thoughts?"

  "We don't know. Your entire realm seems to be different. I am here to ascertain the extent of the differences, so we can decide whether to maintain the portal between realms.” He crested the slope and looked around. “You are in drought."

  "I guess so,” she agreed, reaching the regular ground. “Lot of things drying up. They say this sinkhole is usually filled with water."

  "Then the portal may be cut off when it rains."

  "Gee, I hope not!"

  But her hopes were not what counted. “The landscape seems normal. There are mice and insects and the smells of larger creatures. I need to explore some of the different aspects of this realm."

  "I suppose I could take you into town. But you'd have to hide; it's not safe for a snake on the street."

  "Town?"

  She made a mental picture of a cluster of structures, with many humans between them. “A lot of people."

  "We don't have that many humans in our realm, and they don't cluster beyond small breeding units. How can there be so many here?"

  She made that odd laughing sound. “I guess we're good at breeding. There are a lot of us. In fact, too many of us; we're running out of things."

  "Take me to your town."

  "Okay. I'll bike in on the trail.” She put down her arm, and he slithered up to circle her neck again. “But you know, if anyone sees you like this, there'll be trouble. People don't wear snakes around here. In fact, if I weren't in touch with your mind, I'd be very nervous about this."

  "But I need to be secure, and this is the way a human beast of burden normally carries me, if there is not a howdah."

  "Maybe I can put a shirt on over you,” she thought. She had stopped making vocal noises while thinking, which was a relief.

  The girl walked to the structure she thought of as a house, and found a light shirt. It covered Indigo without stifling him. Then she got a thing she called a bicycle, and rode on it, traveling much faster than before. Indigo realized that these humans were even stranger than the burrow mates had thought; there were endless odd things about them.

  "This telepathy,” the girl asked as she rode. “It really fascinates me. I mean, without it I'd never be wearing a big snake around my neck! I'm learning it some, but it doesn't work at all unless I'm with one of you telepathic creatures."

  "That is because we can project as well as receive, while normal humans can only receive, dully. They are locked in near null state."

  "Null state?"

  "There are four general states of mind contact,” Indigo explained. “With null, we neither send nor receive. With limited, we communicate between two minds, as you and I are doing now. Bears and alligators can do that, but they aren't fully sapient, so it doesn't mean much. With general, we commune as burrow mates, with all of us receiving the thoughts of all. And sometimes we use mind sharing, when one allows another to borrow his mind and senses for some purpose."

  "Borrow a mind? How can you do that?"

  "That is not easy to describe. We do it only when one mind has a quality or power the other lacks, and there is a need to use it. But it has to be limited."

  "I don't think I understand. What quality or power do you lack, that you need from another mind?"

  "Sometimes I need to see the lay of the land, so I can run down a rattlesnake that is threatening a burrow mate. Owl can see the land, but doesn't understand the ways of snakes as I do. So he can fly up and let me share his senses, and I can do a much better survey."

  "That seems neat. But do you know how to fly? You could crash."

  "That is why it is limited. I can't fly, so Owl must keep enough of his mind to stay in the air. But I can see a lot."

  "That sure must be fun,” Rowan thought wistfully.

  Indigo looked through an opening where the girl's shirt buttoned, and saw the trail ahead. “That looks like stone."

  "It's asphalt. It's—I guess it's sort of ground-up stone mixed with tar, and they pour it out and let it harden, and there it is, a great bike path."

  "I don't understand poured stone or how you can move so fast with this thing under your feet."

  "Maybe you could share my mind and see how it is."

  Indigo considered. “I think not. Mind sharing should be used only when there is real need, not for mere curiosity."

  "For me, curiosity is real need.” But she continued moving.

  They came to a much larger paved path. The girl stopped, waiting by its edge. Suddenly a huge thing charged along it, right toward them. Indigo recoiled, in the process choking Rowan, who fell to the side, the bicycle clattering down. The thing charged right past, missing them, so close Indigo felt a wind from its passage. He relaxed, so that the girl could breathe again.

  "I regret that,” he thought. “I will be more careful."

  She understood, because their minds were in touch. “If you want to see the town, you'd better get used to traffic,” Rowan gasped. “That was just a car."

  "That was not a monster?"

  "A car. We ride in them. Like bicycles, only they're larger and have motors. They stay on the road. No need to fear them."

  "But
something that size could tread me flat!"

  She nodded. “I see what you mean. Animals do get squished when they're on the road where a car passes. You just have to stay out of the way. No problem; just stay with me and I'll stay out of the way."

  Indigo realized that he did not properly understand the terrors of this realm. He had never imagined such a threat. It was clear that it was not a safe place for creatures like him to be. He would tell the burrow mates that when he returned. That would not please the human girl, but it had to be.

  Rowan mounted her bicycle again and rode along the side of the road. Another huge thing charged from behind, but went right by without touching them. Indigo forced himself to relax; she did know what she was doing, scary as it was.

  They came to a collection of the structures she called buildings. These started the same size as the one she lived in, but grew larger. The cars crowded the road, and frequently stopped and waited before moving on. There were flashing lights all around. The whole thing was dizzying.

  Perhaps the most worrisome thing about it was that all of this was made by humans—the smart yet mentally closed humans of this realm. They were impossibly numerous, and had made this enormous collection of frightening things. Definitely no place for sensible animals to be.

  Those humans were moving busily all around the town, each garbed in the strange materials of this realm. He got whiffs of what looked like fabric from plants or animal fur, but was actually some alien stuff. Worse, all of their minds were closed. How could such shut-in minds make all these huge buildings and cars? It wasn't natural!

  "That unnatural stuff is called nylon, or rubber,” Rowan thought. “We make clothing from all kinds of things, and of course we use metals and plastics a lot too."

  "I have seen enough,” Indigo told her. “It is time to return."

  She turned her bicycle around and rode back out of town. “Pretty bad, huh?” she asked.

  "Awful,” he agreed.

  "Now you can see why I want to be with you folk. We have material things here, but you have nice minds."

  That made Indigo pause. He knew they should let the portal close, because this was no realm for their kind. But how could it be better for the girl? They would be cutting her off, and that was not kind.

  "Now I understand,” he agreed. But he did not know how to resolve this conflict.

  They reached the path and cycled back through the forest. “So what will you tell the burrow mates?” she asked.

  "That this is an awful realm we should not associate with."

  "I was afraid of that. But you know, you don't have to come here. I mean, not to the town or on the roads. Just far enough so I can talk with you. That's all I ask—just to be with you. Because of your telepathy; I really like it."

  He could understand that. He would be lost without the mind contact. But if they kept the portal open, was there a danger of the things of this realm intruding on the other? That would be awful.

  Yet the girl was not awful. Indigo found himself liking her. He had never liked a human before, but he had never before met a human with a sapient mind. She did not deserve to be locked into this realm where she was the only one who could communicate mentally.

  He could not answer her. Therefore he stalled. “I am not able to make a decision, and perhaps the burrow mates will have trouble too. You know more of this realm than I do. If you will let me share your mind to consider the problem, maybe I can assess the situation better."

  "Sure! And I can start by showing you how the bicycle works. And anything else you want to know. How do I share my mind?"

  "You must drop your natural barrier to intrusion. I will enter. It will feel like something slithering into your head. You must let it happen, though it may repel you. I will pool our thinking, drawing on your knowledge of the things of this realm, so that we have all the information. Perhaps that will lead to an insight."

  "Can I keep riding, or should I stop?"

  "It would be better to stop, for it would be a distraction. Remember, this must be with your cooperation; if you wish me to leave, you can push me out immediately."

  "Will I be gone? I mean, unconscious or something?"

  "No, you will be with me, sharing. There will be two of us in your mind, communicating as we do now. But I will not need to ask you for information; I will have it directly from your memory."

  She steered the bicycle to a nearby tree and stopped. She got off it, leaned it against the trunk, and then sat down with her back to another tree. “I'm ready."

  Indigo lifted his head up along her neck until his snout was touching her cheek. Closeness made it easier. He reached for her mind, and found her cooperating. She was not well experienced at mind contact, but had learned surprisingly rapidly. “Go this way,” he thought, forming a mood of acceptance.

  "Like this?” She mimicked the mood exactly.

  "Yes.” He projected his mind into hers, and suddenly he was there inside it.

  It was like sudden sunshine after a storm. Indigo's mind expanded phenomenally, becoming enormously larger and stranger than it had been. He had never before experienced such a vast scope of intellect; the entire burrow did not match it. Now he understood how it was that the humans of this realm had been able to accomplish so much: they had minds so strong that they didn't need telepathy! They could figure things out without it. In fact they had other ways to communicate, speech and writing, and these were almost as effective as direct thoughts. Perhaps even more so, because the writing was cumulative—a term he had never encountered until this moment. It allowed the minds of the past to give their knowledge to those of the present.

  And of course the bicycle. Now he fathomed it completely. It used wheels—another new concept—to roll along, tripling the efficiency—yet another concept—of the one who used it. All it needed was a firm path to roll along. And the cars: four wheels instead of two, with a motor: now he understood what that was. And the town, with its collected buildings. Everything was clear. This was a functioning human society, not awful, just different.

  There was also something else. Rowan had a problem preying on her awareness, and it related to the burrow mates. “What is this?” he inquired, touching the section.

  "Oh, I wasn't going to say anything about that."

  "Yet it concerns us. We should know."

  She sighed—another human mannerism, wherein a mental state was echoed by a vocal noise. “I suppose so. It's that I got in trouble after rescuing Gopher. I wasn't supposed to be out at night, and they did a bed check and caught me. Uncle and Aunt aren't used to kids; they say that if I do it again they'll send me off to boarding school."

  Indigo picked up unpleasant intimations. “This is a threat?"

  "A dire one. Not only would I hate it, it would keep me away from you burrow folk. I couldn't stand that."

  "Then you must not do that again."

  She nodded. “All too true."

  But his expanded understanding of things was only part of his new awareness. These things hardly mattered. What was vital was the power of this mind. It was unlikely that there was any mind to match it anywhere in the home realm. Not among the animals, and certainly not among the humans. Only the linked minds of the powerful councils could rival it.

  "How came you by this enormous intelligence?” he asked, awed.

  "Gee, I'm not that smart! I'm just a typical regular girl. Sometimes I make Bs in school, and sometimes Ds. There're lots of people smarter than I am."

  Indigo saw that it was true. Rowan's experience in school—new concept—showed that she was an average—new concept—creature of her type. All humans were immeasurably smarter than any animal of the home realm.

  This was horrifying. But there was one overwhelming compensation: these humans could not share their thoughts directly. Rowan was the only one, perhaps because she had been desperately looking for an escape from her personal situation when Gopher had come upon her. She had opened her mind to him, and discovered thoug
ht contact, and quickly learned to use it herself. Perhaps her mind was different from others in its ability to receive thought, and the chance meeting with a mind creature had opened that avenue. She had become one of them.

  "When I leave this mind sharing, I will understand little of this,” Indigo thought. “I understand it now only because I am using your mind. But I believe my understanding is accurate."

  "That's great,” she thought. “But what is your understanding?"

  "That we must maintain the portal, so as to remain in contact with you, alone of all your kind. Our burrow needs your mind."

  She clapped her hands together, making a sound, and joy suffused her awareness and his. “Great! That's what I want. I'll help you any way I can. But you know, we'll have to figure out a way to stop that big construction project."

  Construction project. Now he fathomed that threat, from her mind and memory. There was much she didn't know about it, but what she did know was bad. Big machines—that was the term for bicycles, cars, and other mechanical things—would come and fill in the sink hole, and the portal would be inaccessible. Perhaps Gopher could tunnel through somewhere else, but there would be more of the asphalt pavement in the way, too hard for him to get through. Also cars, which were very dangerous to tortoises and other animals. Bad all around.

  "This is much more than I comprehend, even with your wonderful mind,” Indigo thought. “We must have another burrow meeting to decide."

  "I guess you're right. I sure don't know what to do."

  "Now I will withdraw from your mind."

  "Okay. But it's been fun being a big snake and slithering through things. I never thought to see one like you, let alone be one."

  Indigo slithered out of her mind, and in a moment was himself, loosely coiled around the human girl's neck. The enormous comprehension was gone; now he had only ordinary understanding. But his conclusion was the same: they had to keep the portal open, and that would be a huge and dangerous mission. “We must return to the cave."

  "Sure.” Rowan got on her bicycle and pedaled along the path. The trees and brush passed by rapidly.