The two women sat silently for a moment. A breeze brought them the scent of some nearby flower. Backlit yellow leaves glowed in the sunlight.
“Laura — about your spending time with only La-ren. Do you know, in all this time, I’m not sure I’ve spent more than a few minutes with only Peer-tek.” She paused and took a deep sniff of the scented air. “What is it — like?”
Laura sat in thought for a moment. “It is different than being with Judy. I won’t pretend it isn’t. I flip back and forth between taking it for granted and being — amazed and surprised at this strange little creature. I notice the different smell more when it's just La-ren. And I keep somehow expecting facial expressions, and of course he doesn’t have them. But I think I’m getting to know his body language.” She laughed. “And all those hands! Now that he can grab things, I can’t keep up!”
Veda smiled. “I think Jimmy gets frustrated that he can’t reach as far as Peer-tek, or touch as many things at once.” Her expression changed to what Laura called her “scientist at work” look. “I wonder when the human twins will start doing things the Tofa twins can’t. And what they’ll be.”
Laura stood up. “Which reminds me. We’ve got to get these little guys back inside. It’s Group Assessment time again.”
Veda rolled her eyes, but followed Laura’s lead. “I suppose it is. What was that old expression about stopping to smell the roses? I hope the children will get the chance, now and then, in between assessments and measurements and everything else that’s planned for them.”
* CONFIDENTIAL *
CLEARANCE CLASS 3 AND ABOVE
LEVI Status Report, 6-15-72
Executive Summary
Educational Methods
Our extensive access to the subjects and control over their environment allows for a comprehensive education strategy, from a point well before formal education customarily begins. The tentative plan for those twins raised in a home environment is to provide trained caregivers to assist the foster mother (and any additional parent figure) while providing age-appropriate educational support. The twins resident in dormitories will have numerous planned activities as well as many stimulating toys, games and other instrumentalities. The home-based twins will join the others for activities, and later for more formal schooling.
Language Proficiency
As a threshold matter, it is essential that both human and Tofa subjects become as fluent in Tofar as proves to be feasible. Toward that end, Tofa nurses will spend considerable time with each twin pair, except where the host mother is a Tofa who chooses to play a continuing active role.
Educational Objectives
Decisions will need to be made at the executive level as to what resources will be directed toward preparing the subjects for possible involvement in outside communities, as opposed to studying the subjects for their scientific value. There are also unsettled questions concerning the degree to which the subjects will be exposed to various details of Terran history. . . .
“Possible involvement? What unsettled questions? What details?”
Mara’s assistant stood in the doorway, shoulders slightly hunched, flinching at each exclamation. Mara told herself to stop flogging the messenger. “Stan, I’m sorry. I know you’re just trying to make sense of all the reports and messages from different departments. So tell me — what is this all about, and where is it coming from?”
Stan swallowed and shifted his feet. “I believe there have been some communications from the Council staff. Ah, some concerns have been raised about who might be held accountable if any, uh, interventions should lead to unpleasantness.”
“As opposed to the peace and harmony we can expect without ‘interventions.’ The spineless — we need to push back on this, hard. For one thing, if the Council starts viewing us as primarily a research project, they won’t maintain our funding long enough for us to become anything else. . . . And the ‘details of Terran history’?”
“That didn’t come from the Council. Some of our people have been asking whether it’s such a good idea to inform Tofa — even our own Tofa — about our less admirable past episodes.” Stan swallowed again and then looked Mara in the eye. “And Dr. Cadell, I have to say I see some basis for that concern.”
Mara glared at him for a moment and then checked herself. Better to know what people were thinking. And he might even have a good reason for thinking it. “Please go on.”
Stan appeared to consider relaxing, and to decide against it. “The Twin-Bred have to respect us. To look up to us. We’re shaping their lives, determining their destinies. Especially the Tofa twins — they have to believe that we’re benevolent and wise, that we know what’s best for them and want what’s best, alien as we are. If we tell them all about wars and atrocities and human folly . . .” Stan trailed off.
Mara hoped her expression was not too condescending. “Stan, think about it. Sooner or later, they’ll have to know that we don’t have it all figured out, that we don’t really know what we’re doing. Otherwise, why would we need their help?”
“Well . . . ”
“And as for respect — how much will they respect us and our intentions, if they find out we’ve been keeping horrible secrets from them?” She sat for a moment, twiddling her stylus. “But I agree with some of what you’re saying. We could overdo it. This isn’t the time and place to expiate the guilt of our past with humble confession. We’ll need to set the stage, very carefully.”
"I've got an idea, sis."
"Now there's a surprise. What is it?"
"You've got how many thousands of novels and short stories in the data banks? Use 'em. Let the most gifted spokespersons humanity has produced explain humanity to these kids, in all its intermittent glory."
"Hmmm. That's worth considering. I could bring Laura Hanson in on it -- she's some kind of literature maven -- as well as the education staff."
"You're welcome."
Educational Objectives (revised)
The overall goal is to prepare the subjects for the various possible roles that their postulated abilities and characteristics would make possible. These range from mediation and arbitration to actual governance. Their education must therefore encompass social sciences including sociology, psychology, political science and cultural anthropology. It should also include as much as possible of the various scientific and technical disciplines that could arise in disputes concerning, e.g., city management, agriculture, power generation, infrastructure, atmosphere maintenance, and biological and chemical health and security. Training in public speaking and related skills will be desirable, although the complexities involved cannot yet be fully ascertained or prepared for. Materials will be tailored to the subject’s ages and their individual capabilities.
Historical Terran conflicts, social inequities, etc., will be presented where necessary as examples of what can result from failures of communication and empathy.
Discussions continue concerning the use to be made of the extensive available library of Terran literature for children and adults. It has been suggested that the sociological and psychological curriculum may be appropriate for literary supplementation. . . .
Chapter 11
Chief nurse Harriet Gaho had a rare interlude with nothing pressing to do, and was using it to walk in the garden near the infirmary. Now and then she would stop and bend over for a sniff of the large, pale yellow blossoms the humans called Lemon’s Dream.
As she straightened up from a bush, Harriet caught movement out of the corner of her eye. A Tofa host mother had joined her.
“Hello,” said the Tofa.
Harriet turned and looked up at the almost featureless face. Well, the Tofa host mothers all spoke some Terran, or so she'd heard. But there was something unsettling about the encounter, all the same.
Enough standing there looking foolish. She smiled, for whatever it might be worth. “And hello to you. I'm Harriet Gaho, Chief Nurse. And you would be?”
“If you are asking my
name, it is Ra-tel-sen. If I may ask a question: what were you doing with the flower?”
Ignoring a sense of having fallen through the looking glass, Harriet replied, “I was smelling it. Smell is one of our senses. We take molecules of a substance in through our noses and analyze them.” She always liked teaching, but this was a different sort of student.
“We have a similar sense. A different portal is involved. Your facial movements — am I correct that you enjoy this smell?”
“Yes, indeed. We had flowers back on Earth — Terra — that smelled nice to us, as a byproduct of smelling good to insects they needed to attract. Do your flowers attract any insects — very small animals — to help the flowers reproduce?”
The Tofa stood still for a moment, then blinked twice, slowly — a Tofa shrug. “At some point in the future, I may understand your questions better. Thank you for the conversation.”
Ra-tel-sen turned and left, receding quickly with her long stride. Harriet stood looking after her, frowning in concentration.
Surely, even with its abrupt conclusion, this was a longer, more complex conversation than humans and Tofa could usually engage in. And what Tofa had ever said “thank you” before?
Or, for that matter, “hello”?
* CONFIDENTIAL *
CLEARANCE CLASS 3 AND ABOVE
LEVI Status Report, 7-1-72
Executive Summary
Status of Tofa Host Mothers
One development of interest is the apparent effect on Tofa host mothers of carrying human fetuses to term. (A team is developing hypotheses concerning other possible causes for the observed phenomenon. Its report is expected in approximately six weeks.)
One open question from the Project’s inception was the nature of the bond to be expected between Tofa host mothers and the human fetuses, and later the human infants. Preparations were made for eventualities ranging from conduct endangering the human infants, to behavior approximating maternal in-species Tofa behavior (although, given the paucity of information concerning normal in-species behavior, this might be difficult to identify), to a complete absence of maternal behavior, to behavior reminiscent of human maternal behavior. The results have fallen on a spectrum between the latter two possibilities.
Of obvious interest was whether Tofa host mothers and the human infants they had carried would develop any mutual understanding comparable to what was potentially expected between Twin-Bred pairs. Until the human children develop more sophisticated linguistic and behavioral skills, this remains undetermined. However, the majority of the Tofa host mothers have displayed a significantly improved ability to interact harmoniously with, and to communicate with, adult human Project team members. The improvement was notable from a point commencing approximately 13 weeks before delivery, and has continued after delivery although the rate of improvement is declining.
Some involvement of the Tofa host mothers following parturition has been part of the Project plan, with the details and parameters left open for obvious reasons. However, senior staff are now exploring the possibility that any Tofa host mothers who are willing could become, not only continuing objects of Project study, but members of the Project staff. . . .
“Mara, I believe you’re smiling. It becomes you. Do try it more often.”
“And you’re teasing, which you do quite often enough. But really, Levi, it’s encouraging. The response of the Tofa host mothers is a very good sign. If carrying a human fetus has this sort of impact, sharing the womb with a fetus of the other species is even more likely to have some transformative effect —”
“Transformative. That is a word to give one pause. I don’t recall you suggesting to the Council that you were out to transform humanity. Might’ve ruffled a few feathers, that.”
“Whatever you want to call it, this change in Tofa host mother behavior certainly increases the odds that the Project wasn’t a wild waste of time and resources.”
“So now we have Tofa who understand humans better. Adult Tofa, whose bonding with individual humans is from a position of superiority, not the bond between peers. A pity we don’t have an human analogue.”
Mara stifled her irritation at having her good mood complicated. “Well, the human mothers are better at understanding their own Tofa babies than the Project staff are. But you’re right, they don’t seem any better at dealing with regular Tofa.”
“Hmmm.”
“Hmmm what?”
“You weren’t at all sure about using Tofa host mothers. Some of the staff thought it would be a bridge too far, so to speak. That it would add too many variables, too much to keep track of, too many possibilities for trouble.”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember what ended the debate in favor of using them?”
“The Tofa showed up with all those extra Tofa embryos. After rejecting some of the human women we’d recruited.”
“Yes. Those unrequested Tofa embryos — mysteriously perishable embryos, so the decision had to be made quickly. And most of them died in utero after all. Meaning that the principal result of those embryos’ brief appearance —”
“Was the creation of Tofa host mothers. So this is all some sort of Tofa plot. Levi, I would like to call this paranoia.”
“Call it what you like. Paranoia is part of my job description. Just keep an eye on those mothers.”
Chapter 12
The Tofa nurse stood with lower arms extended as Til-sal staggered toward him. When Til-sal was close enough, the nurse scooped the toddler up with his lower arms and tossed him to his upper arms. The nurse rubbed his chin in a circle on the child’s head, crooning congratulations in Tofar.
Chief nurse Gaho turned to the young human nurse beside her. “Know what we just saw?”
The young woman hesitated, then replied, “Could it be — like a kiss?”
“That’s my guess.” They watched as the tall Tofa tossed the small one in the air, caught him and plunked him down, then backed up and beckoned for him to walk again.
Soon the toddlers were everywhere, staggering around, two or four or occasionally five arms extended for balance — or reaching for the entrancing toys lying on newly accessible surfaces. Researchers learned to keep tablets, chemicals, and other paraphernalia hidden away in drawers — and then to requisition locks for the drawers.
Most of the staff tolerated the invasion with anything from resignation to good humor to sentimental fondness. There were, however, exceptions.
Annabelle Bloom, biogenetics specialist, shuddered as a year-old Tofa lurched by on thin stiff legs, arms splayed. “Like a Frankenstein mated with a wagon wheel,” she muttered.
Her department manager, passing by, corrected her. “Frankenstein’s monster. Frankenstein was the scientist. People always get that wrong.” He headed off to the dining hall for lunch.
“Yes, Dr. Frankenstein,” Bloom whispered after he was safely out of hearing.
Now the Tofa child was gazing up at a microscope. He was not yet tall enough to see through the eyepiece, but he could reach the controls. He gave an experimental twist to a dial.
Bloom looked around for witnesses. She and the young Tofa were alone in the lab. She hissed at him. “Get away from that! Scat! Get out!”
The child jumped and turned around. Bloom looked into the alien eyes and swallowed sour saliva. “Out!”
The Tofa walked unsteadily out of the room, faster than he had entered, bumping into a cabinet as he went. Bloom waited until the child was some ways down the hall, then relaxed, breathed deeply, and found a towel to polish the dials on the microscope.
Walking Twin-Bred were a diversion, or a nuisance, but of scientific interest only to the staff studying Tofa physical and behavioral development. A great many members of the Project staff were eagerly awaiting the Twin-Bred’s first words. Bets were laid as to the date, the language — Terran or Tofar? Some incomprehensible pidgin? — the subject, the individual and species — who and which would speak first?
Mara put a s
top to the wagers in which the order of events was key, as these were likely to lead to disputes, inconsistent eyewitness testimony, and extensive review of security tapes. That done, she relished the excitement and suspense.
When the words came, among the first for both species was a word that some considered reassuring and others anticlimactic: “mama”.
Then there was the Tofa word for hand. And “nu-nu” for nursing, of which Tilda confessed to being the origin. The Tofa word for “ball.” And the Terran and Tofa words for sky.
The Tofa were first to learn verbs — including not only active verbs like “throw” and “run,” but others like “look” and “wait.”
* CONFIDENTIAL *
CLEARANCE CLASS 3 AND ABOVE
Pronunciation Issues
One early result of the Project, now that the Twin-Bred have begun to develop language skills, has been resolution of a question concerning Tofa proper names. The sound between syllables of Tofa names, analogized to a human hiccup, has until now been impossible for humans to master fully. It appears that this limitation is not physiological in nature. To date, all but two of those human subjects who have begun speaking have proved able to produce it. . . .
There was no pidgin as such. There were Tofar words that humans found difficult, and Terran words that Tofa could not quite pronounce. Different twin pairs found different solutions. After a while, one of these would catch on and become part of the developing Twin-Bred dialect.
With not only host mothers, but dozens of other adults ready to echo and model and coax, the children progressed quickly from single words to short phrases. The Tofa advanced more quickly to full sentences. Harriet Gaho joked that their sentences had to match their arms.
Inevitably, there were surprises.
Twin-Bred Page 7
