I went back to my dome, washed, and changed into clean clothes, then went to the lounge. A gusty wind was blowing, and there were clouds across most of the sky. Rain, I was almost certain.
I thought of a poem suddenly. It was Anishinabe.
Sometimes I go around feeling sorry for myself,
and all the while
a great wind is carrying me across the sky.
The lounge was crowded. People were bringing chairs from the dining room. Derek and Eddie stood at the bar.
“How did it go?” I asked Derek.
“With Nia? All right. She identified the animal. It’s rare and solitary. It lays eggs.”
“Something that big?”
“The dinosaurs laid eggs. Marina is excited. She thinks we are looking at a biosystem in transition. Animals that are native to this continent are being replaced by animals from the islands or from the other continent.”
“Or from Earth,” said Eddie.
“No,” said Derek. “The med team says our bugs do very badly in the native organisms. The bacteria starve to death. The viruses do nothing. They aren’t able to use the native genetic material. They cannot reproduce.” He grinned. “The native organisms are doing rather better in us, especially several species of microscopic parasitic worm. Liberation Minh is very excited by them. They have abilities we did not expect at all.”
“You make it sound like good news,” said Eddie.
“I find it interesting. And Liberation doesn’t think the worms represent any real danger.”
“Huh!”
Derek glanced at me. “The med team says that we can go upriver.”
“Good.”
Ivanova came in, accompanied by a dozen or so crewmembers. It was disturbing to watch them. They moved as a unit and sat down together in chairs that had been saved by other members of the crew.
“Time to start,” Derek said. He lifted himself onto the bar.
I got up beside him, though less gracefully.
Derek raised a hand in the native gesture that asked for attention. The people grew quiet. “Okay. Who is moderating?”
“Someone neutral,” Ivanova said.
A man called, “Is Mr. Fang here?”
I looked around. There he was, sitting in the third row back. He was thin and wiry, with upright posture and an alert expression. His gray-white hair was fastened in a bun. He wore his usual costume: a faded blue cotton shirt over faded blue cotton pants.
He whispered to the young woman next to him. She stood. “Mr. Fang does not feel able to moderate. His voice is not strong enough.”
“Then you do it,” the man said.
The young woman blushed. “I am Mr. Fang’s apprentice. I know nothing about public speaking.”
At that point I stopped listening. In all likelihood the Chinese had picked someone to moderate. But they wouldn’t put the person forward. That would be undemocratic and immodest. Instead there would be a discussion. I looked around the room trying to estimate the size of the crowd. Over a hundred. About a third were crew. They must have brought in everyone from the rocket planes. I smiled at people I knew. Harrison Yee stood in the back, leaning against the wall, his arms folded. He raised a hand in greeting. Funny, I should have seen him before this.
The moderator was picked. A middle-aged Chinese woman. She had a strong firm voice and not much of an accent.
“It is getting late. These people have to get up early. I am going to suggest a very limited agenda. I think two questions are of special interest to everyone here.
“First, what happened to Lixia and Derek? Why did we lose contact with them?
“And second, what do they think is going to happen tomorrow? What are the natives going to do?”
The agenda was approved by a show of hands. Derek gave a report on our accident. He was brief and clear. I stood next to him, feeling uncomfortable. I wasn’t especially fond of meetings, and I did not like being the center of attention. I was an observer. I wanted to be in the audience. When he finished, the moderator asked if I had anything to add.
“No.”
“Do you want to answer the next question?”
“What are the natives going to do? I have no idea.”
Derek added, “They are used to travelers; and they aren’t afraid of strangers. But the strangers are only passing through. As far as we can tell, each culture is discrete. They don’t mix. Maybe because they don’t have a tradition of war. They don’t conquer their neighbors. They don’t carry one another off into slavery. They don’t rape. They don’t steal wives.”
“Is this a tangent?” asked the moderator.
“No. If we were travelers, they’d welcome us. But we are going to ask for permission to stay. I have no idea how they will respond.”
Harrison Yee raised his hand. The moderator pointed at him.
“This situation can’t be completely new. This planet has diseases and volcanoes. There must have been villages that were so damaged by some natural disaster that they couldn’t continue on their own.”
“Yes,” said Derek. “But we haven’t heard about them.”
Another person said, “Are you sure there has been no exchange of genetic material? Have you seen evidence of inbreeding?”
“No,” I said. “And I think Derek is overstating the situation. We know that individuals move from one culture to another. There is probably enough of this kind of movement to prevent serious inbreeding. But as far as we can tell, there isn’t the kind of mixing of entire populations that has been common on Earth.”
“In that case,” the person said, “there ought to be a lot more genetic diversity. I think you’re wrong. I think these people are managing to interbreed.”
“I’m only telling you what I’ve seen. And my conclusion, which is—we don’t know how these people will react to a bunch of strangers who want to settle down in their midst.”
“We are not talking about a permanent stay,” a woman said. She had an East Indian accent. “Are we?”
“Please raise your hand before you speak,” the moderator said. “We do not want this meeting to get out of control.”
A black man raised his hand. The moderator pointed to him. He said, “I know it was decided to send a mixed group. Men and women. I think that’s crazy. The natives have driven away how many men? Gregory. Derek. Harrison. We’re just going to make them angry.”
Ivanova said, “I agree with you absolutely.”
Eddie said, “We are not planning to go into the village until we’ve explained the situation and asked for permission. If they say the men can’t come in, we won’t.” He smiled briefly. “Which could be a problem for my position. If necessary, I will ask Lixia to give the argument for nonintervention, though I’d prefer to give it myself.”
“They’re likely to tell all of you to go away,” the black man said. “What you are doing has nothing to do with honesty. This is lack of respect for the culture and beliefs of another people.”
Ivanova nodded. “You are right. But remember—we have already achieved what we wanted in this region. Derek and Lixia have been rescued. If the natives tell all of us to leave, not much is lost. We can send a team of women to another village.”
“If honesty doesn’t work, we can always try a lie,” a woman said.
The moderator said, “Please.”
People kept talking. Nothing new was said and no one went back to the question asked by the Indian woman, either to answer it or ask it again. We are not talking about a permanent stay. Are we?
The meeting ended. I jumped off the bar. Harrison came up and hugged me.
“Where have you been?”
“On one of the planes. Eddie’s been keeping me busy, sending reports to the ship.”
I must have looked dubious or maybe hurt.
“He said you were having trouble adjusting to the camp. You needed time alone.”
“Maybe.”
People were leaving, taking chairs. Gustavo moved in behind th
e bar. His eyes shone green. He said, “I’m reopening. Can I get you anything?”
Harrison and I ordered wine.
Eddie said, “Be careful with that stuff. We want to start early tomorrow.”
“When?” I asked.
“Sunrise.”
“I’ll be careful. Are you sure that you want me to give the argument for nonintervention? If you can’t, I mean?”
“You know the argument. You know how to speak to the natives. You believe in democracy.” He smiled. “Maybe more than I do. If the natives are going to make an informed decision, they need to know what I have to say. You’ll see that they get the information.”
“I guess I will.”
He paused for a moment. “As Derek would say, we have to learn to deal with people as they are. If they can’t be corrupted, then we have to find a way to use their honesty.”
“You’re talking in the first person plural, Eddie. That’s always a dangerous sign.”
“You’re right.” He made the gesture of farewell.
Harrison watched him leave, then said, “What was that about?”
“Eddie is having trouble dealing with the current situation.”
Harrison nodded. “If he doesn’t get himself together, I think we are going to have to find another coordinator for the team.”
“No more politics! Tell me what’s been happening on the ship. The gossip. Not the faction fighting.”
He did. I finished my wine.
Gustavo said, “In my role as a bartender I should offer you another. But I’m also a psychotherapist, and you don’t need any more alcohol.”
“You are?”
“Of course. My area of competence is psychopharmacology.” He took my glass, then wiped the ring of moisture off the bar. “You don’t have to worry. I took a course in bartending. I can mix almost anything you might want to drink.”
Harrison grinned. “And then tell you what kind of damage it will do.”
Gustavo nodded. He took Harrison’s glass. “Sunrise, Lixia. You might want to pack tonight.”
He was right. Harrison and I left the lounge. The air outside was damp and cool, and the clouds above the river bluffs had spread. Now they covered a third of the sky.
“New weather,” said Harrison. “I envy you. I have to go back to the plane.”
“You do?”
He nodded. “Eddie wants me to handle communications between you people and the ship, which means I’ll be trapped out there—” He waved at the lake. “I don’t really mind. There is the most beautiful young man on the communications team. They thawed him out recently. His eyes are like the sky in summer, and his hair is like autumn wheat.”
“Huh,” I said.
Harrison glanced at me and grinned. “Now, Lixia, you know I have not been in love with anyone for a long, long time. Not since we went to sleep. I think it may be a side effect of hibernation. Are bears amorous when they first awake?”
“I haven’t the vaguest idea. But some people are. Remember what Derek was like when we were coming into this system.”
Harrison laughed. “Maybe people recover from hibernation at different rates. Maybe some bears are amorous when they first awake.” He paused. “I’d better go find out when the last boat leaves. If I don’t make it, I’m going to have to swim.”
We said good-bye. I went to the supply dome and got a bag, went to my room and packed.
I did not sleep well. My dreams mixed the planet with the ship. I walked down a corridor made of cermet and ceramic. There were natives there, moving among the shipboard humans. I turned a corner and was in a garden. An enormous quadruped grazed on lettuce plants. It regarded me serenely with a tiny dark eye. The ugly-nasty scuttled over a floor of yellow tile. I heard the clicking of its nails.
I turned another corner. There was a native camp in the middle of a ceramic meeting room. Smoke rose from a fire. A native woman was crouched over a metal cooking pot. A native child was playing with a cat. It was a perfectly ordinary Earth cat, a domestic short hair, half-grown. Its fur was spotted black and white. The child’s fur was brown.
Derek woke me. I stared at him, thinking about the cat. Marina was right. We ought to grow a few.
“Rise and shine,” he said.
“I’ve been having damn strange dreams.”
“You’ve been getting too much information. And you’re trying to process it.”
I got up and went to the bathroom.
We ate breakfast in the dining hall. It was empty except for the people who were going upriver and Peace-with-Justice. He recommended eggs Benedict.
“The egg gives you cholesterol. The ham does damage to your karma. And the sauce contains enough calories to—”
“Have we started killing the pigs?”
He nodded. I felt queasy. They were a special miniature breed, originally developed for lab work. They were bright, clean, well mannered, and extremely cute. I could eat the chickens. I could eat the iguanas. But I wasn’t sure about the pigs.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said. “I’ll fix you a serving with no ham. I can tell by your expression that you are willing to do damage to yourself in this life only. So—here you are.” He gave me a plate. “Cholesterol and calories, but no bad karma.”
“Thanks,” I said.
I ate. The sun rose. The landscape outside the dome became visible.
“Time to go,” said Ivanova.
I gulped my second cup of coffee. Peace-with-Justice said, “Good-bye.” We went down to the boats.
Nia and the oracle were there, standing on the dock, looking uneasy. Nia had a bow and half a dozen arrows with pale gray feathers. The color reminded me of Marina’s biped, the one that hadn’t been eating.
“Five people on each boat,” said Ivanova. “I have given thought on how to split us up. The natives should stay together. Lixia will go with them. And Agopian. And Tatiana.
“The rest of us will take the other boat.”
Eddie frowned.
“You are putting all the politicians on one boat,” Derek said. “Is that wise?”
“We will aggravate each other,” Ivanova said. “But the other people will be safe.”
“It’s fine with me,” I said.
“And with me,” said Mr. Fang. His apprentice was with him. “Poor Yunqi may suffer. She has no interest in politics.”
The young woman blushed and nodded.
“But it is good for the young to experience adversity.”
I climbed onboard and stowed my bag, then went out on deck. Ivanova had already started her engine. Agopian was casting off for her. The two natives were on the dock, watching. They looked interested and nervous.
“Come on,” I said. “Get on.”
Ivanova’s boat moved out from the dock and turned, going in a wide circle away from shore. Tatiana started the engine on our boat. Agopian cast off. I leaned on the railing and felt relaxed for the first time in days. I was moving again. There was nothing I liked better than travel.
We followed the first boat out into the lake, turning south, then east, then north. Ahead of us was the dark river valley.
Angai
A wind blew. The lake was flecked with foam. Ahead of us and to one side Ivanova’s boat bounced over the waves. We were bouncing, too. Nia and the oracle grabbed on to the railing.
“This thing goes quickly,” the oracle said.
“What makes it move?” asked Nia.
How to explain the internal combustion engine?
“There is a fire inside,” I said finally.
She frowned. “That does not make sense. Fire can move, but it does not make other things move, unless they are alive.”
The oracle made the gesture of agreement.
Nia looked at the water. “I have seen the plain on fire with everything running before it. Bowhorns and osupai. Every kind of bird and bug, the ones that fly and the ones that jump, all hurrying ahead of the fire. Even the killers were running and the little animals th
at tunnel underground.
“But they were alive. Fire changes. It does not carry.”
“Maybe Derek can explain.”
We reached the north end of the lake midway through the morning. The wind dropped as soon as we got among the little forested islands. The sky remained partly cloudy. There were patches of sunlight on the river and on the green and blue-green trees.
The boats moved slowly. Tatiana said, “Keep an eye out for debris.”
After a while I saw a lizard. It was in midchannel, swimming steadily, its head held out of the water. The spines along its back were visible, but nothing else, and it wasn’t easy to estimate the animal’s size. About ten meters long.
“Aiya!” said the oracle. “I am glad we are not in Ulzai’s boat.”
“Going south,” said Agopian in English. “I wonder if it is true about the migration?”
By noon we had seen five lizards. All were big, and all were heading south. Only one was out of the water. That one dragged its enormous bulk over a mud bank, going south like all the rest.
The radio crackled and spoke Russian.
Tatiana said, “Ivanova has warned the camp. If those animals decide to leave the water, there may be trouble.”
We ate lunch in the cabin: sandwiches and tea. The natives had the haunch of a biped.
“Sacrificed by Marina,” Agopian said. “And cooked without anything. It ought to be safe.”
“How does it taste?” I asked in the language of gifts.
The oracle made the gesture that meant “it could be worse.”
“It needs salt,” Nia said. “And other things. I will be glad to be in a village again.”
I took food out to Tatiana. She remained at the wheel, guiding the boat with one hand while she ate a smoked-fish sandwich.
“We are almost to the tributary. If the satellite pictures are not telling a lie, we ought to be able to go up it.”
I made the gesture of acknowledgment.
The others came out on deck.
“It’s frustrating,” Agopian said. “I’m sitting with people from another star system. My mind is full of questions; and all I can do is point and make faces.”
“He has been making improper gestures,” said the oracle. “And baring his teeth.”
A Woman of the Iron People Page 42
