“But the emotions you are describing are not usually connected, at least in humans, with sexuality,” Richard said. “Does the barrican also act as some kind of tranquilizer, subduing all feelings?”
Archie finished his breakfast before responding. “You and I are very different creatures and, as I have mentioned before, it is dangerous to project from one species to another. I remember our initial discussions about humans at the optimizers’ meeting just after you had breached the integrity of your habitat. In the middle of the meeting, the Chief Optimizer stressed that we must not look at your species in our terms. We must observe carefully, she said, obtain data, and correlate it consistently, without coloring the data with our own experience.
“I suppose this ail amounts to a disclaimer, in some sense, of what I am about to tell you. Nevertheless, it is my personal opinion, based on my observations of humans, that sexual desire is the driving force behind all the strong emotions in your species. We octospiders undergo a step discontinuity at sexual maturation. We change from being completely sexless to sexual in a very short period of time. In humans the process is much slower and more subtle. Sexual hormones are present in varying quantities from early in your fetal development. I contend, and have told the Chief Optimizer this, that it is possible that all your uncontrollable emotions can be traced to these sexual hormones. A human without any sexuality might be capable of the same optimized thought as an octospider.”
“What an interesting idea!” Richard said excitedly, standing up and beginning to pace. “So are you suggesting that even such things as a child’s unwillingness to share a toy, for example, might be linked in some way to our sexuality?”
“Perhaps,” Archie replied. “Maybe Galileo is practicing the possessiveness of his adult sexuality when he refuses to share one of his toys with Kepler. Certainly the human child’s devotion to the parent of the opposite sex is a precursor of adult attitudes.”
Archie stopped, for Richard had turned his back and had increased his pacing. “I’m sorry,” he said, returning a few moments later and again sitting on the floor beside the octospider. “Something occurred to me just now, something I thought about briefly earlier this morning when we were talking about controlling our emotions. Do you remember an earlier conversation in which you dismissed the concept of a personal God as an ‘evolutionary aberration’ necessary for all developing species as a temporary bridge during transition from the first awareness phase to the Information Era? Have the recent changes in you altered in any way your attitude about God?”
A broad burst of multicolored strips, which Richard recognized as laughter, spilled over most of the octospider’s upper body. “You humans,” Archie said, “are absolutely preoccupied with this notion of God. Even those like you, Richard, who profess not to believe, still spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about or discussing the subject. As I explained to you months ago, we octospiders value information foremost, as we were taught by the Precursors. There is no verifiable information available about any God, especially not one who is involved in any way with the daily affairs of the universe—”
“You didn’t exactly understand my question,” Richard interrupted, “or maybe I didn’t phrase it precisely enough. What I want to know is, in your new, more emotional state, can you understand why other intelligent beings might create a personal God as a device to give them comfort and also to explain all those things that they cannot comprehend?”
Archie laughed again with bursts of color. “You’re very clever, Richard,” the octospider said. “You want me to confirm what you think, namely that God also is an emotional concept, born out of a yearning not unlike sexual desire. Therefore God too is derived from sexual hormones. I cannot go that far. I do not have enough information. But I can say, based on the turmoil inside me these last few days, that I now understand this word ‘yearning’ which was meaningless to me before.”
Archie seemed like his old self this morning. Richard smiled. He was pleased. Their exchanges had been like this daily before Archie’s buffer had become empty of barrican. “It would be great, wouldn’t it,” Richard said suddenly, “if we could still talk with all our friends back in the Emerald City?”
Archie knew what Richard was suggesting. The two of them had been careful never to mention the quadroids or even to hint that the octospiders had an intelligence-gathering system. They did not want to alert Nakamura and their guards. Now, as Richard watched silently, bands of color streamed around Archie’s head. Although the octospider was no longer using the derivative language that had been developed for communication with the humans, Richard was able to understand the gist of the transmission.
After formally greeting the Chief Optimizer and apologizing for the lack of success of their mission, Archie sent two personal messages, a short one to Jamie and a longer one to Dr. Blue. During the transmission to his life partner Dr. Blue, variegated bursts of color broke out of the measured pattern of Archie’s message. Richard, who had grown to know his basement companion well in their two months together, was both fascinated and touched by this beautiful display of uninhibited emotion.
When Archie was finished, Richard came over and put a hand on the octospider’s back. “Do you feel better now?” he asked.
“In some ways,” Archie replied. “But I also feel worse at the same time. I am more aware now than I was before that I may never see Dr. Blue or Jamie again.”
“Sometimes I imagine what I would say to Nicole,” Richard interrupted, “if I could talk to her on the telephone.” He spoke his words very correctly, exaggerating the movements of his mouth. “I miss you very much, Nicole,” he said, “and I love you with all my heart.”
Richard did not have very vivid dreams. Therefore, external sounds were not likely to be incorporated into an ongoing dream. When he heard what he thought was a shuffling of feet above him in the middle of the night, he awakened quickly.
Archie was sleeping. Richard looked around and realized that the night light in the toilet area was extinguished. Alarmed, he awakened his octospider companion.
“What is it?” Archie asked in color.
“I heard something unusual upstairs,” Richard whispered.
There was a sound of the door to the basement stairs opening slowly. Richard heard a soft footstep, then another, on the top of the stairs. He strained his eyes, but Richard could see nothing in the near darkness.
“It’s a woman and a policeman,” Archie said, his lens picking up the infrared heat of the intruders. “They have stopped for the moment on the third step.”
We ‘re going to be killed, Richard thought. A powerful fear swept through him and he drew closer to Archie. He heard the slow closing of the basement door and then the footsteps descending the stairs.
“Where are they now?” he whispered.
“At the bottom,” Archie said. “They are coming. I think the woman is—”
“Dad.” Richard heard a voice from his past. “Where are you, Dad?”
“Holy shit! It’s Katie,” Richard said. “Over here,” he added, too loud, trying to contain his excitement.
A very small flashlight beam wandered around the wall behind his mattress and eventually landed on his bearded face. A few seconds later Katie tripped over Archie and literally fell into her father’s arms.
She kissed and hugged him, tears running down her cheeks. Richard was so startled by the entire event that he was at first unable to respond to any of Katie’s questions. “Yes… yes, I’m fine,” he said eventually. “I can’t believe it’s you… Katie, oh, Katie… Oh, yes, that gray mass over there, the one you kicked a moment ago, is my friend and fellow prisoner, Archie the octospider.”
Several seconds later Richard exchanged a firm handshake in the dark with a man Katie introduced only as her “friend.” “We don’t have much time,” Katie said hurriedly after several minutes of conversation about the family. “We’ve short-circuited the power systems in this entire residential area, and they sho
uld be repaired before too much longer.”
“Are we going to escape, then?” Richard asked.
“No,” Katie said. “They would certainly catch and kill you… I just wanted to see you. When I heard the rumor that you were being held somewhere in New Eden… Oh, Daddy, how I have missed you! I love you so very much.”
Richard put his arms around his daughter and held her as she cried. She felt so thin and fragile in his arms. “I love you too, Katie,” Richard said. “Here,” he added, pulling away slightly, “shine the light on your face… Let me see your beautiful eyes.”
“No, Daddy,” Katie said, burying herself again in his embrace. “I look old and used… I want you to remember me as I was. I have lived a hard—”
“It’s unlikely that they will be keeping you here much longer, Mr. Wakefield,” the male voice in the dark interrupted. “Almost everyone in the colony has heard the story of your appearance at the soldiers’ camp.”
“Are you all right, Daddy?” Katie said after a short silence. “Are they feeding you properly?”
“I’m fine, Katie… but what have you been doing? Are you happy?”
“I’ve had another promotion,” she said rapidly. “And my new apartment is beautiful. You should see it… And I have a friend who cares about me.”
“I’m so glad,” Richard said as Franz reminded Katie that they needed to be going. “You were always the smartest of the children… You deserve some happiness.”
Katie suddenly began sobbing and lowered her head against her father’s chest. “Daddy, oh, Daddy,” she said through her tears, “please hold me.”
Richard put his arms around his daughter. “What is it, Katie?” he said softly.
“I don’t want to lie to you,” Katie said. “I work for Nakamura, managing prostitutes. And I’m a drug addict… a complete and total drug addict.”
Katie cried for a long time. Richard held her tightly and patted her on the back. “But I do love you, Daddy,” Katie said when she finally raised her head. “I always have, and I always will… I’m terribly sorry that I have disappointed you.”
“Katie, we must be leaving now,” Franz said firmly. “If the power is restored while we are still in the house, we’ll be in deep shit.”
Katie kissed her father hurriedly on the lips and stroked his beard affectionately with her fingers one final time. ‘Take care of yourself, Daddy,” she said. “And don’t give up hope.”
The flashlight beam was a thin finger of light preceding the visiting pair as they quickly crossed the room to the bottom of the stairs. “Good-bye, Daddy,” Katie said.
“I love you too, Katie,” Richard said as he heard the sound of his daughter’s feet running up the stairs.
5
The octospider on the table was unconscious. Nicole handed Dr. Blue the small plastic container that the alien physician had requested and watched as the tiny creatures were dumped onto the greenish black fluid that covered the open wound. In less than a minute the fluid was gone and her octospider colleague deftly sewed up the incision using the forward five centimeters of three of her tentacles.
“That’s the last one for today,” Dr. Blue said in color. “As always, Nicole, we thank you for your help.”
The two of them walked together out of the operating area into an adjacent room. Nicole had not yet accustomed herself to the cleaning process. She took a deep breath before removing her protective gown and placing her arms in a large bowl filled with dozens of silverfish like animals. Nicole fought against her personal revulsion as the slimy things clambered all over her arms and hands.
“I know this part is not pleasant for you,” Dr. Blue said, “but we really have no choice now that the forward water supply has been contaminated by the bombing. And we can’t take a chance that anything here might be toxic for you.”
“Is everything destroyed north of the forest?” Nicole asked while Dr. Blue finished cleaning herself up.
“Almost,” the octospider replied. “And it looks as if the human engineers have now finished their modifications to the helicopters. The Chief Optimizer fears that they will make their first flights over the forest in another week or two.”
“And there have been no replies to the messages you have sent?”
“None at all. We know that Nakamura has read them… but the humans captured and killed the last messenger near the power plant-despite the fact that our octospider was carrying a white flag.”
Nicole sighed. She remembered something Max had said the night before when she had expressed bewilderment that Nakamura was ignoring all the messages. “Of course he is,” Max had shouted angrily. “That man understands nothing but force. All those stupid messages say is that the octos want peace and will be forced to defend themselves if the humans don’t desist. The threats that follow are meaningless. What is Nakamura to think when his troops and helicopters move around unimpeded, destroying everything in sight? Hasn’t the Chief Optimizer learned anything about humans? The octospiders must engage Nakamura’s army in some kind of battle.”
“That’s not their way,” Nicole had replied. ‘They do not involve themselves in skirmishes or limited wars. They only fight when their survival is threatened. The messages have spelled this all out very carefully and have repeatedly urged Nakamura to talk to Richard and Archie.”
In the hospital, Dr. Blue was flashing colors at Nicole. She shook her head and returned to the present. “Are you going to wait today for Benjy?” the octospider asked. “Or will you go directly over to the administrative center?”
Nicole checked her watch. “I think I’ll go now. It usually takes me a couple of hours to digest all the quadroid data from the day before. So much is happening. Please tell Benjy to tell the others that I’ll be home for dinner.”
She walked out of the hospital a few minutes later and headed for the administrative center. Even though it was daytime, the streets of the Emerald City were nearly deserted. Nicole passed three octospiders, all hurrying on the other side of the road, and a pair of crab biots, who looked strangely out of place. Dr. Blue had told Nicole that the crab biots had been recruited for Emerald City garbage duty.
The city has changed so much since the decree, Nicole thought. Most of the older octos are now over in the war domain. And we never saw a single biot here until a month ago, after most of the support creatures had supposedly been moved to another location. Max thinks many of them might have been terminated because of the shortages. Max always thinks the worst of the octospiders.
Often after work Nicole would accompany Benjy to the transport stop. Her son was also helping the shorthanded staff at the hospital. As Benjy had become more aware of what was occurring in the Emerald City, it had grown increasingly difficult for Nicole to hide the seriousness of their situation.
“Why are our people fighting against the octospiders?” Benjy had asked the previous week. “Don’t they know that — the octos don’t want to hurt anybody?”
“The colonists in New Eden don’t understand the octospiders,” Nicole had replied. “And they won’t let Archie and Uncle Richard explain anything.”
“Then they’re stupider than I am,” Benjy had said gruffly.
Dr. Blue and the other members of the octospider hospital staff who had not been reassigned because of the war were all very impressed with Benjy. In the beginning, when he had volunteered to help, the octospiders had had reservations about what he could do with his limited capabilities. Once a simple task had been explained to him by Nicole, however, and he had repeated it back to her, Benjy never made a mistake. With his strong, youthful body, he was especially helpful performing heavy labor, a valuable attribute now that so many of the larger creatures were no longer around.
While Nicole was walking toward the administrative center, she found herself thinking about both Benjy and Katie. In her mind’s eye Nicole glanced back and forth between pictures of the two children. As parents, she said to herself, we often spend too much time focusing on int
ellectual potential instead of more substantive qualities. What matters most is not how much intellect the child has, but rather what he or she decides to do with it. Benjy has succeeded beyond our wildest imaginings, primarily because of who he is inside. As for Katie, never, in my worst nightmares…
Nicole broke her train of thought as she entered the building. An octospider guard waved at her and she smiled. When she reached her usual viewing room, Nicole was surprised to find the Chief Optimizer waiting for her. “I wanted to take this opportunity,” the head octospider said, “both to thank you for the contribution you are making in this difficult period and to reassure you that all your family and friends here in the Emerald City will be cared for as if they were members of our species, no matter what happens in the next few weeks.”
The Chief Optimizer started to leave the room. “The situation is deteriorating, then?” Nicole asked.
“Yes,” the octospider replied. “As soon as the humans fly over the forest, we will be forced to retaliate.”
When the Chief Optimizer was gone, Nicole sat down in front of her console to scan through the quadroid data from the day before. She was not allowed access to all the information from New Eden, but she was permitted to call up the images of the daily activities of all the members of her family. Nicole could see each day what was happening in the basement with Richard and Archie, how Ellie and Nikki were adjusting to being back in New Eden, and what was occurring in Katie’s world.
As time passed, Nicole watched Katie less and less. It was simply too painful for her. Observing her granddaughter Nikki, by contrast, was pure delight. Nicole especially enjoyed watching Nikki on those afternoons when (the little girl went to the Beauvois playground to play with the other children of the village. Although the images were soundless,
Nicole could almost hear the squeals of mirthful delight as Nikki and the others tumbled over one another in pursuit of an elusive soccer ball.
Nicole’s heart ached for Ellie. Despite her daughter’s heroic efforts, Ellie was not having any luck resuscitating her marriage. Robert had remained withdrawn in his workaholic pattern, using the demands of the hospital to keep him from facing all emotions, including his own. He was a dutiful but restrained parent with Nikki, only rarely showing any true delight. He did not make love with Ellie and would not talk about it, except to say that he was “not ready” when she tearfully brought up the subject three weeks after they had been reunited.
Rama Revealed r-4 Page 39