“How do you know?”
“I got them to give me urine samples. There’s no way that a baby could be born through that orifice, and there’s nothing else appropriate. I did a very careful physical examination. No womb, but very substantial generative organs. We went through some pantomime to confirm it. But that big captain on the tape, the one you keep calling Grizz, and referring to as he? She’s female! All of her, and that squat one’s her second-born cub. Honey’s the sire.”
“So they are dimorphic with regard to size, but the other way round to our two species,” Ken said, nodding.
“Right. There’s precedent for this configuration, living on Earth at this minute. The males are tercels, an old word meaning a third smaller, Terran birds of prey. The large birds, falcons, are the females.”
“Well, I’m glad we got that figured without making a serious gaffe. It doesn’t matter what gender one is, so long as we don’t mistake one for t’other,” Ken said.
* * *
Eonneh, emerging from his turn in the ring-shaped scanner, sought out Genhh and Frrrill and the new Ayoomnnn. They were sitting in the wooden room, speaking softly to each other. He sat down beside them.
“I am terribly sorry for mistaking your gender,” Eonneh said in his own language, pantomiming disgrace, which involved drawing an invisible line from his bowed forehead to the floor. “You are larger than others of your species, so we thought you were female. We didn’t realize you were males of two different species of alien.”
“What’s he saying?” Frill asked, mystified.
“I think he’s trying to apologize,” Ken said. “It’s okay, you know,” he said, putting a hand on the Gringg’s upper limb. The fur was smooth but thick, like horsehair. “It’s no insult to be thought female, or male, for that matter. I know you’re trying to learn all about us, but who said you had to get it all right first crack?”
“Nereh?” Eonneh understood his forgiveness, but missed the colloquialism.
Sumitral sighed. “We have got to make some sort of device so we can start understanding one another.”
“We’ve got one problem,” Kate said, leaning out the door. “I can’t get this lad into the X-ray. He’s too big! It’s only made for Hayumans and Hrrubans. We’re going to have to take him over to Ben Adjei’s unit at the Animal Hospital for a peep at his insides.”
* * *
While Kate Moody continued physical examinations, Lauder made use of an unused biochemistry lab to start work on the Gringg tissue samples and foodstuffs. Nrrna, who worked in the bio-lab, prepared samples for the centrifuge and electron microscope.
“I’m a duffer at chemistry,” Kelly informed them. “My training is in diplomacy. I’ll wash glass, or whatever you need me to do.”
“One thing I’ll need,” Lauder said, very tentatively, “and I’m not sure I should ask you, is a volunteer to taste the foodstuffs if they test out as safe.”
“Ouch,” said Kelly, wrinkling her nose. Nrrna looked alarmed. “Well, if you promise me I won’t die of it, I’ll try anything.”
“Oh, you won’t be the only guinea pig at the table,” Lauder said with a shrug. “We need to try at least one of the Gringg on Doonan food. Once we’ve got results on the tissue, I’ll know what we can offer them and what we shouldn’t.”
“That’s good,” Kelly said cheerfully. “I do hate to eat alone.”
“Them?” Kate replied, when asked about the Gringg’s gastrointestinal system. “They can handle anything that isn’t moving too fast. I did a whole-body sonogram on Ghotyakh as long as I had him over at the vet clinic. He watched everything I did, and I got the impression he doesn’t like to go to doctors of his own species! That digestive pouch you detected below the stomach is one tough little organ. I wouldn’t try them on concrete, but there’s not much shy of that they can’t eat. My husband, Ezra, went home to get some supplies. We may as well all dine together.”
* * *
In the Federation Center, Jon Greene waited before the transport grid. Only moments before the four-hour time limit, the mists arose on the grid platform and the form of Mllaba took on shape and substance. Greene stepped forward to greet her.
“Did you meet with success?” he asked. The glare of her yellow-green eyes warned him not to get too close. He stopped short and gestured a fine bow as she left the dais.
“I have accomplished ze firrst of my goals,” Mllaba said, settling her black robes back on her narrow shoulders. “Others from Hrruba will be following me very shortly to aid in slowing down ze Gringg agenda. As frrr ze second, it awaits ze Speaker’s own presence to be set in motion. But I have laid ze groundwork well,” she added with a degree of smugness. The two of them discussed plans for a few moments, then Greene glanced at his wrist chronometer.
“Now,” he said.
The Hrruban put her clawed fingers on the controls. The air over the grid thickened, gradually revealing a crowd of Hayumans exclaiming to one another at the novelty of transporting by grid. Barnstable was at their head. Greene recognized two of the men and one of the women as members of the Humanity First! movement. Another was a prominent journalist with a talent for rabblerousing. Three others were minor politicians and animal-rights activists. Greene grinned. The Admiral hadn’t missed a trick.
As soon as he was aware of where he was, Barnstable looked around. “No unauthorized personnel present. Good. My thanks, Mllaba, for our safe transport. Greene, I’ll want a report from you in an hour’s time.”
“Aye, sir,” Greene said, saluting.
“Your allies from ze Hrruban homeworld await you at the meeting point, Admirrrral,” Mllaba said. “Ze Speaker is with them.”
“Good. To the First Villages, then,” Barnstable said, nodding at the Hrruban female. Mllaba’s claws clattered quickly over the controls. She had just enough time to join the party on the platform before it vanished.
Unnoticed by the others, three men in mufti slipped off the rear of the platform and waited until the mists cleared.
“Bouros, Gallup, Walters,” Greene barked. The three men stiffened to attention. “Follow me.” The commander led them out of the building into the night.
* * *
“Quit staring at me,” Kelly complained, turning aggrieved hazel eyes on Ensign Lauder. “If I feel my insides curling up, I’ll tell you.”
“Sorry, ma’am. I’m just curious as to what’s going on with you.” The young medic blushed and went back to his plate.
Kelly grinned. “I’m just fine. In fact, some of this is pretty good.” She turned to her dinner partner, Ghotyakh, and pointed at a sausage-shaped mass. “What do you call that?”
“Raghia,” Kodiak said. “Neehar, ar . . .” He made his four fingers into the legs of some animal and walked them in a lumbering gait across the table.
“Meat of some ruminant?” Ken decided. “We’ll have to get him to draw us a picture later. These fellows have fantastic skill.”
Sumitral took another helping of stew. “It’s clear that it is an important part of his job, even class station, to be able to write and draw well. I’d say that they’re at the top of their grade, by the way, though I observe that Ghotyakh defers to Eonneh.”
“I think if they’re organized like us, Eonneh must be Grizz’s special aide as well as mate,” Ken agreed.
Eonneh nodded, showing his teeth, having caught the gist of Ken’s statement. He and Ghotyakh were making significant inroads on the pot of stew. When Kate’s daughter Rachel had arrived with dinner, the Gringg’s agile noses went into full twitch. They waited, looking wistful, while Kate did a quick test to make sure there was nothing in the meal that would disagree with them, and howled with joy when she led them to the table to be served.
“By the way, Lauder,” Kate said, “you were wrong about one of them eating as little as one of us. That was Kodiak’s sixth bowlful.”
&n
bsp; Lauder grinned lopsidedly. “I could eat the same, myself. This is delicious. You don’t get meals this good shipside.”
“My very thought,” Sumitral said placidly.
“Go on with you,” Kate said. “It’s all last year’s dried snake meat.”
“No, it’s terrific,” Lauder insisted.
“Do not let Dr. Kate ovrrwhelm you with hrrr modesty,” Hrrestan said, his jaw dropped in a genial grin. “Hrrr cooking has been praised widely by all, including my mate, Mrrva.”
“Well, that one’s a winner,” Kelly said, marking the packet of raghia with a plus sign. “Alison would like it: tasty with a flavor rather like urfa.” With businesslike fingers, she pushed it to one side and opened another packet. She was taking only small portions from each of the Gringg rations, to leave room for as many samples as possible. The next was a chopped vegetable in a messy red sauce. She spooned a little of it onto her tasting plate and took a mouthful. Her face wrinkled up, and she choked.
“What’s the mazzer?” Nrrna demanded.
Hrrestan rose to his feet in alarm. “Shall I get the szomach pump?”
Lauder was out of his chair and beside Kelly in a moment. She waved them away. Her face had turned red.
“Salty,” she gasped, gesturing at the water pitcher. Kate handed her full glass over and then he refilled Kelly’s.
“So that’s what they use to keep up their electrolyte balance,” Kate said briskly. “You might like to know, Ensign, that unlike Earth animals, they have sweat glands here and there under that great pelt. Suggests to me that they evolved from an animal with less body hair. And they have a tremendous lung capacity, more than four times ours, plus a layer of fat beneath the skin that ranges from three to five centimeters. Now what does that suggest to you?”
“Nozzing,” said Hrrestan, shaking his head.
“They’re swimmers,” Ken guessed, playing with a piece of bread.
“That’d be my summation,” Kate said with satisfaction. “Seems to me as if they must have evolved from something more like otters than bears. It would certainly explain the tail.”
“Hmm,” said Kelly, taking another packet. This one contained dried brown kernels shaped rather like Brussels sprouts, and coated with a fine tan powder. She crunched one tentatively between her teeth, and smiled with pleasure. “Um, these are great. Gringg candy,” she said, offering some to Ken, who reached out to take it.
“Ah-ah-ah!” Kate scolded, putting a hand between them. “No one else gets to try anything until you, my dear, have gone twenty-four hours without a reaction.”
Kelly gulped. “I guess I didn’t realize what a serious job this was going to be.”
“I’m sorry,” Kate said kindly. “I’m sure everything’ll be all right, but if you’re going to run a proper experiment, control is essential.”
“Oh, well.” Kelly sighed, and opened another packet. “And what do you call this?” she inquired of the Gringg.
Commander Frill entered, his nose twitching almost as much as one of the Gringg’s.
“Something smells wonderful,” he said. He was holding an armful of tapes and a couple of small pieces of equipment.
“Sit down and have some,” Kate invited him. “There’s stew, tenderfoot chili, creamed potatoes, mixed veg, and plenty left if you can beat the Gringg to it. Your friend Lauder here was just saying that this compares favorably to ship food.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Frill said with alacrity, sitting down next to Ken. He helped himself generously from the stewpot and tore a huge section from the loaf beside it. “I don’t know when I last had a home-cooked meal.” Between bites and exclamations of pleasure, Frill explained what he had found.
“One of the engineers at the computer control in town let me use the equipment,” he said, “to listen to these tapes. I think I’ve found the problem,” he went on, setting down the equipment: a hand-recorder, a speaker, and a paired unit with glass-fronted screens. Across the upper screen was a flat green line. The lower showed stepped levels in green light. He started the recorder, and they heard Grizz repeating words after Ken. “Here, watch the screens carefully. Now, this is Gringg conversation.” On the oscilloscope, the green line etched peaks above and below the center line as the sound level rose and fell. The frequency monitor below showed peaks and valleys, too, but more peaks than valleys when Ken’s voice was heard, with just the opposite whenever the Gringg spoke.
“Interesting,” Ken said, peering at the numbers beside the levels on the frequency monitor. “That would explain why I couldn’t approximate some of their pronunciations. Their voices dip down into subsonics.”
“How low do they go?”
Frill checked his printout. “Thirteen to fifteen cycles, sir.”
“We Hrrubans would merely feel zose lowest tones,” Hrrestan commented.
“Ah,” Sumitral said. “So the words go below the range of Hayuman and even Hrruban hearing.”
“It would also explain why we felt nervous, sir,” Frill explained. “Some of these low tones provoke fear responses.”
Sumitral nodded. “That guides us toward what we’ll need to make coherent contact with the Gringg.”
“If I can ask a favor, Admiral?” Kate Moody said, standing up to dish out more food.
“I’ll grant it if I can,” Sumitral replied, watching her heap potatoes onto his plate.
Kate strove to keep her voice light. “Don’t forget the little people who helped make this meeting possible, will you? The citizens of Doonarrala are wildly interested in helping to learn whatever they can about the Gringg, and want a chance to help. They’re not afraid of challenges or they wouldn’t be here. Don’t shut them out.”
“Madam, I don’t discount the input from those who have helped so far, especially the children, to whom the Gringg seem very attached,” Sumitral acknowledged. “And I’d be a fool to push aside volunteer staff who are so eager to be included, so long as they acknowledge that I’m in charge of this mission.”
“Oh, I don’t think they’ll mind that,” Kate said. “It’s being left out that they’d hate.”
“This is Doonarrala,” Kelly said, indicating herself and Nrrna. “We take pride in getting to know others on equal terms. That’s what our husbands are doing right now on the Gringg ship, and on behalf of Alien Relations, over the twitching frame of Admiral Barnstable, I might add.”
“Cooperation made Doonarrala what it is today. I’m all for extending the principle,” Sumitral said, smiling up at her.
“Good, because cooperation is going to start with someone else cleaning up after this meal,” Kate said with a broad grin. “Rachel, organize a few volunteers from those outside, will you? Then we can get on with the tests.”
“I must go,” Nrrna said. “It is nearly time for Hrrunna’s meal. I must find Jilamey and ze children.”
Sumitral rose and helped her out of her chair. “You take good care of that small ambassador,” he told her.
“Zank you, I shall,” she said, beaming shyly at the ambassador from Alreldep.
“Make sure the Cats get to bed on time,” Kelly called. “Jilamey will let them stay up till all hours, and they are not to stay out of school on Uncle’s say-so.”
Hrrestan yawned, slurring his words out of pure exhaustion. “I frrr one am wearry. I am adjuzzed to Zreaty Island time, and we started earrly wiz ze confrrnce zis morning.”
Unexpectedly, Nrrna was in the doorway again. She gestured behind her.
“Zese people wrrr waiting outside ze drrr.” She did not have a chance to move aside, for she was pushed in by the crowd of Hayumans and Hrrubans who forced their way into the room. To Ken, their uniformly stony expressions gave them the aspect of a mob, not yet touched off, but potentially dangerous.
At their head were Barnstable and Second Speaker. Sumitral, standing beside the table, crossed h
is arms and waited calmly, while the mob organized itself around the perimeter of the big room, keeping wary eyes on the Gringg but patently determined to be in earshot. Hrrestan rose and stood beside the Alreldep ambassador.
“Well, Ev, how are you?” Sumitral asked.
Barnstable ignored the courtesy. “These people wanted to have a word with the colony leaders about this situation.”
“And precisely which sizuazhon is zat?” Hrrestan asked, his tone relaxed but his eyes moving warily over the faces.
“The interruption of our spaceport conference by these . . . things,” protested Lorena Kaldon, jerking her hand at the Gringg. “I came here to talk construction, mortgages, and interest rates, not alien invasions. My time is valuable, as is that of my colleagues here.”
“We must do what we came to do!” added a Hrruban whom Hrrestan remembered as being a crony of the now-retired Third Speaker, a notorious reactionary. “Send zem back where zey came from. I oppose negotiations wiz zese aliens.”
“They’re called the Gringg,” Sumitral said, a pleasant smile on his face. Eonneh and Ghotyakh, recognizing that word, rose to their feet and turned to face the newcomers. Both Kaldon and the Hrruban, suddenly obliged to crane their necks up, stepped as far back as they could.
Swallowing, Kaldon continued, but her voice was considerably less contentious. “We came so far, planned so long for this conference. It has to continue. You must understand our positions.”
“No one planned to have zuch an interruption, Delegate Kaldon, but ze conference cannot resume at this time,” Hrrestan said, “and, as co-leader of Doonarrala, I muss ask your indulgence in zis matter. Surely you should recognize zat zeir appearrrnce has altered everything. For ze time being, all discuzhons about ze spaceport must be deferrrred while we learn more about ze new arrivals.”
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