‘I’m a lady,’ she retorted. ‘I won’t tell you till I’ve decided I need practice in blushing – or you do.’
They stood silent for a little, hand in hand.
‘Too lovely a sunset for anything but itself,’ she said, looking across the river. Light from clouds and water poured hot gold across her. ‘Does Earth really have places left like this?’
‘A few.’ He was chiefly conscious of her clasp.
‘Your stamping grounds?’
‘No, they’re different. Woods, mountains, sea, wet climate–’
‘Silly! I know you’re from British Columbia. You’ve now confirmed what I also knew, that you’re as literal-minded as a computer. If I said “frog”, you wouldn’t simply jump, you’d do your best to turn green.’
He smiled across an inward flinching. ‘Come to Earth and meet a frog. Kiss him and change him back into a handsome prince. Then you’ll be sorry. You see, the conservation of mass will require you become a frog.’
Did she see that she had called him old and stodgy? For she spoke with renewed seriousness. ‘Sure, they’ve kept enclaves of nature on Earth, and you had the luck to grow up in one. But didn’t you first truly luck out when you came here? Aren’t you happier where we are the enclave? Freedom–’ Abruptly she pointed. ‘Look! Look! A bipen!’
Sparling’s gaze followed her gesture. The animal which flew lumberingly from above the row of trees was less bird-like than the other ptenoids in view. Instead of four legs and two wings, it had four wings and two legs – and endless further differences, from bone to feather-plant. He was familiar with the dipter, which dived after ichthyoids off the South Beronnen coast. But the majority of four-wingers, less successful than two-wingers, were confined to Haelen. He’d never seen a bipen before. It was a large and comely creature, plumage violet in the sunset rays.
‘They’re beginning to move north,’ Jill breathed. He glanced at her, saw how her eyes shone, and lost interest in the bipen. ‘I thought they would. Remains from the last cycle – shifts of storm belts – Ian, am I awful for being fascinated by what Anu passage does to the ecology?’
No, he wanted to say; you can do no wrong.
He couldn’t have voiced it thus, but he groped after a word more meaningful than ‘Certainly not.’ Her cry interrupted him. He cast his attention back skyward.
The saru which had been at hover descended. Its wings drove clawed feet and hooked beak; Sparling heard air whistle behind. He heard the impact which broke the bipen’s neck, and saw blood spray. The blood of ortho-Ishtarian life is purple, and wildly fluorescent. The saru labored off with the heavy catch it had made.
Jill choked. Again he glimpsed tears. She mastered them. ‘Bound to happen, I suppose,’ she mumbled. ‘Every thousand years. Maybe the species has even gotten dependent on this kind of thing.’ She turned to him. ‘But we don’t need to. Do we?’
He shook his head.
‘By God, and I mean the original,’ she went on between her teeth, ‘we will not quit.’ Gulping: ‘’Scuse me. I try to be brave and all, but – that poor birdling coming this far to die– Let’s give ’em hell, Ian. Thanks for everything. Good night.’ As she let him go and walked swiftly back, Bel went under the world-rim.
Sparling stayed where he was, loading his pipe, till she had gone from his view and for minutes after. Clouds darkened in a blue dusk, save where the moon tinged them. The early stars trod forth, and mellowly shining Marduk. He thought how tormented that planet was by the storms Anu raised in its immense atmosphere. But across a few hundred million kilometers, nothing is visible except peace. The air around him grew cooler still, water clucked, smoke gave his mouth an acrid kiss.
Indeed, he thought, this moment and place were more serene than his birthland. No matter that Earth was blessed above Ishtar, except maybe in having brought forth man; the West Canadian coast and the Inland Passage were never like the Jayin Valley, they were clouded, wave-beaten, storm-swept, and upon a sunny day what you saw was a stern majesty.
Jill’s right. I have been lucky. His daughter had said the same last year, when he took her on a cruise through the remembered country. Her college was in megalopolitan Rio de Janeiro.
Boyhood among trees and clean currents, because his father happened to be a space architect who commuted to Vancouver when he didn’t leave Earth entirely, his mother a programmer who could work right out of her house, and they between them able to afford Ocean Falls– I’ve seen Welfare and the Backworld too, he told Yuri Dejerine as he had not during the day’s discussions. Don’t get me wrong, I sympathize, I agree those people deserve a better break. And as far as pride in being human goes, I was at the formative age of fifteen when Gunnar Heim brought us to our victory over Alerion. I don’t merely know, I feel what that meant.
But working outsystem as a young engineer, I met Naqsans, and Satan take it, they’re our kind. Then for the last twenty years I’ve been on Ishtar, this has become my world, here’s where my duty lies–
He shook himself. Past time to report in. His boots racketed.
Twilight was deepening toward night, more and more stars out, when he finished the short climb up Humboldt Street from Riverside and opened his gate. Window-gleams caught wilted roses and bald patches in grass. Terrestrial plants didn’t give way to weeds if neglected. For that, some years would first have to pass, killing off imported earthworms and soil bacteria, restoring the original balance of acidity, nitrogen, and trace elements, letting native microbes rebuild humus. Untended exotics simply sickened and died. I’ve got to fertilize, drain, whatever’s needful, he thought. When I get the chance. If I do. No groundsmen were for hire in labor-short Primavera. Becky had handled the work.
Be honest. I could find the necessary hours if I wanted, Sparling knew. Truth is, I enjoy gardens but not their maintenance. Rather do carpentry for my fun, or whittle toys to give to kids human or lshtarian. And Rhoda has what Jill (Jill) calls a sere and withered thumb.
He walked in the front door. His wife laid down her book. He recognized a novel which had caused considerable excitement on Earth when he was there. The library had ordered a reel for making printouts. Curious about what went on in the novel nowadays, after its long eclipse, he kept intending to read this specimen. However, he always seemed too busy, or he was tired and preferred to relax with an old familiar like Kipling, or he was intrigued by a piece of lshtarian literature, or–
‘Hello,’ she said. ‘What happened?’ Her English kept a trace of Brazilian accent. Once he had learned Portuguese and they spoke it at home; but they’d drifted out of the habit and he lost his vocabulary.
‘I’m afraid I can’t tell you for a while,’ he grunted. Guilt reminded him weakly that she was no blabbermouth and Olga Hanshaw had been free to listen in. He replied that he was too worn out to discuss the miserable business any further – the more so when Rhoda, isolated in a minor supply-department position, would need everything explained at length which Jill saw on the instant.
‘It is not good,’ she said after watching his face.
‘No, not good.’ His lankiness flopped into a chair. A minimum he must reveal: ‘I’m leaving for Sehala tomorrow. Got to, uh, make liaison with the assembly while it stands. I expect I’ll be gone a few days.’
‘I see.’ She rose. ‘Do you care for a drink before dinner?’
‘Absolutely. Rum and a dash of lemon. About two fingers.’ He held them upright in a row.
When she smiled, a trace returned of that which had drawn him to a shy, studious girl he met on a job. She’d never been an unusual sight; he’d originally rated her at a millihelen, the amount of beauty needed to launch a single ship. But he’d always been awkward with women; he saw he could have Rhoda Vargas if he wished, and she’d be a good partner; he proceeded systematically to fall in love. ‘I have been looking forward,’ she said.
Younger than he, she nonetheless showed more gray in her hair. The snub-nosed countenance had gone pudgy, as had the short body. Ye
t passing by on her way to the kitchen, she stroked a palm across his head, and he recalled their first years.
Alone, he puffed his pipe and wondered if Becky’s difficult birth had brought on the slow change. The doctor had said there was no point in cloning her a new uterus; she’d lose it afresh, and the baby too, next time. But they hadn’t been required to try for more children, had they? Did the loss inside carry some consequence too subtle for meditechnics to see? The blunt fact was, she remained gentle, popular in the community, an excellent cook, et cetera, et cetera, but drop by drop they came together less often, in spirit and in flesh.
Or, he thought, not for the first occasion or the hundredth, was the change mainly in me? For his work had sent him adventuring across half the planet, while hers and the child kept her behind. He got the Earthside business trips, while she – who missed her kinfolk more than he did his, though she never complained – must settle for a few weeks every four years. On the other hand, she kept her human associations in Primavera, her interest in human creations, while his involvement steadily increased with Ishtarians and their minds.
Be the cause what it might, these days he felt little for her beyond a certain liking and compassion: a truth which he only had the heart – or the nerve – to tell himself. When his projects began to demand he spend most of his time here, planning and directing, instead of in the field, his main emotion was resignation to dullness.
Until he grew fully aware of Jill Conway.
He tamped his pipe with his thumb, almost savoring the slight burn.
Rhoda brought in their drinks. ‘I’m glad you got away this early, dear,’ she said. ‘You have been straining too hard. I thought tonight, if you didn’t come in late, for dinner I would make something special.’
VII
Captain Dejerine accepted happily an invitation to a day’s guided outing with a person who could explain what he saw. Besides a chance to start making friends in a community whose co-operation he needed and which he knew was hostile to his purposes, he welcomed the sheer recreation, after a wearying space journey. When the person whom Goddard Hanshaw mentioned turned out to be Jill Conway, his pleasure boosted to delight.
She called for him before Belrise, in the eerie red light of Anu low in the north. He and a few associates were temporarily lodged at the inn; most of the men must remain in orbit till their prefab shelters could be erected. He had been supplied a flywheeler. (‘Might as well do you the courtesy before you requisition it,’ Hanshaw had growled half amiably.) Jill’s was a great deal larger and livelier. He was appalled at the prospect of matching her driving style, but clenched his jaws and presently found himself enjoying the speed. By then they had crossed the river – on a small automatic ferry, since his machine lacked a skimmer – and were well into untouched Ishtarian countryside.
Bel arrived in heaven, shadows doubled and the ember illumination became rosy. Jill halted at a grove where a spring flowed. ‘How ’bout breakfast?’ she proposed. ‘Afterward we’ll go more leisurely.’
‘Magnifique.’ Dejerine opened the carrier box on his vehicle. ‘I regret being unable to make a real contribution, but here is an Italian salami, if you will accept–’
‘Will I!’ She clapped her hands in glee. ‘I’ve had that exactly once before in my life. Believe me, a first love is nothing compared to a first Italian dry salami.’ Liar, she thought, remembering Senzo. And yet … the hurt of that was well healed over.In you also, darling, I trust.
Dejerine helped her spread a cloth on the ground and unpack the food she had brought, bread, butter, cheese, jam. He is pleasant, she thought. Damn good-looking, too. As she was plugging the coffee maker into her wheeler’s capacitor, he startled her: ‘I have not had a minute to say this before, Miss Conway, given your whirlwind procedure. But I know your brother Donald. He asked me to send his best greetings.’
‘Huh?’ She sprang from her hunkering position. ‘You do? How is he? Where’s he bound for? Why hasn’t he written?’
‘He was in excellent shape the last time I saw him,’ Dejerine replied. ‘We had spent quite a few hours talking, in the course of days. You see, when I was assigned here, I – you say? – I looked up whoever I could get from Ishtar, in hopes of a briefing. That happened to be Don.’ His smile was quite captivating, easy, warming the whole face, accompanied by a regard which was not a stare but an appreciation. ‘He told me considerable about you.’ He turned serious as quickly as she herself might. ‘Where is he posted? I know only that it is to the front. Please don’t worry too much about him. In every way, equipment, training, organization, we are far superior to the enemy. And as for the rest, he was busy and preoccupied; he admitted he hates to write letters, and so he entrusted me with his word. I did make him promise he would write soon.’
Jill sighed. ‘Thanks a billion. That’s Don, for sure.’ She returned to the coffeepot. ‘Let’s save the details for later. Like this evening, if you don’t mind, we can land on my parents. My sister and her husband would want to hear too.’
‘As you wish,’ he said with a slight bow. He had the sense not to try to help when he would obviously get in her way. Instead he admired their surroundings.
The grove stood on a rolling plain. It was chiefly tall red-topped swordleaf, though domebud added splashes of bright yellow. The turf shaded by the trees was that low-growing, tough lia which humans called dromia. The spring issued from beneath a boulder spotted orange with clingwort, ran down in a rivulet, and soon vanished into the soil. Nevertheless it nourished a wide area, for many kinds of shrubs grew around the coppice. Further out, sward gave place to waist-high fallowblade and head-high plume, waves of dull gold across kilometers. The wind blew warm and dry, bearing scorchy odors, awakening a thousand rustlings above the faint gurgle of the water.
‘Do you know the names of all these plants?’ Dejerine asked.
‘The common breeds,’ Jill said. ‘I’m no botanist. However’ – she pointed around – ‘most of what you see is assorted kinds of lia. It’s as varied and important as grass is on Earth. Bushes– That little fellow yonder is bitterheart; the Ishtarians use it for seasoning and a tonic, and it seems to have medicinal properties for humans as well. But watch out for the scraggly thing, night thief. It’ll make an Ishtarian sick, and kill you or me if we eat it. There’s no firebloom around here – needs more moisture – but the thunderweed gets really spectacular in the rainy season, which we’re heading into; and then in spring, the pandarus.’
‘The what?’
Jill giggled. ‘I forgot you wouldn’t know. That’n. It draws entomoids to pollinate it by duplicating their sex attractants, both sexes. Quite a spectacle.’
For an instant she regretted her remark. Dejerine might take it as an invitation. He simply inquired, ‘Do you use translations of the native names?’
‘Seldom,’ she answered, relieved. She could fend off a pass, but– Well, if there are going to be any, I prefer to initiate them. Wryly: Not that I’d win trophies, of whatever shape, in a contest for femme fatale of the year. ‘Most aren’t translatable – how would you say “rose” in Sehalan? – and we aren’t geared to pronounce the originals properly. So we invent our own. Including “lia”, by the way. The first scientific work on the family was done by Li Chang-Shi.’
‘M-hm. I understand the photosynthesizing molecule here isn’t identical with chlorophyl, only similar. But why are both red and yellow this frequent?’
‘The theory is, the yellow color is basic, but red pigments originated in Haelen as an energy absorber. A heath of sun-drinker is a wild thing to see. The phylum proved sturdy enough to spread across the globe and differentiate every which way. Just a theory, you realize. Lord, a whole world! In a century we’ve barely begun to get the outlines of how little we know … Let’s eat, shall we?’
As they did, the sky was darkened by a flock of pilgrim, made thunderous by their wings and clangorous with their cries. Startled, several azar broke from a swale where they had been graz
ing and bounded off, their six legs undulatingly graceful. Through binoculars, the humans saw details which Jill explained.
‘No true horns on Ishtarian theroids. Those stubby things you see are more like what grows on a rhinoceros. A few kinds of azar – it’s a whole clutch of genera – a few big types in North Beronnen do develop an impressive spread, but mainly for display. Look … can you make out how the front legs have a special shape? And their hoofs are sharp striking weapons. Seems to be a general tendency on Ishtar, for the forward pair of limbs to do something besides help locomotion. The extreme case, of course, is the sophonts and their relatives; forelegs become arms and forefeet become hands.’
When the splendid parade had ended and quiet dwelt again beneath the wind, Dejerine looked gravely at her as he said, ‘I get a glimpse of how you who were born here must love this planet.’
‘It’s ours,’ Jill replied. ‘Though in a peculiar way. Our race will never take it over, will never be more than a few. It belongs to the Ishtarians.’
He dropped his gaze to the cup he held. ‘Please understand, I appreciate how dismayed you must be that your humanitarian plans are set aside. Always in war, many hopes are interrupted or destroyed. I pray for an early end of the fighting. Meanwhile, perhaps we can work something out for you.’
Maybe, Jill thought. Don’t push too hard, girl. She smiled and, very lightly and briefly, patted his hand. ‘Thanks, Captain. We’ll talk about that. But today we’re enjoying a peek-around. I’m supposed to be your docent, not your nag.’
‘By all means,’ he said. ‘Ah … you mentioned relatives of the natives. My sources describe equivalents of the apes–’
‘Kind of,’ Jill nodded. ‘Like the tartar, which really corresponds more to a baboon. The closest kin is the fellow we call a goblin.’
‘The semi-intelligent species? Ah, yes, I was coming to those. How much do you know about them?’
Fire Time Page 8
