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drink would be water sucked from a tube, waste release would be into an aspirator, rest would be
uneasy and sexual intercourse nil. However, if we could achieve real converse, it would be worth
everything. We scrambled forth with eagerness making our auras dance. The flyer taxied off at once,
rounded a curve, and vanished. After a moment we heard a rumble and saw it take off above the
shoulder of the mountain, an upward meteor,
Terangi Maclaren stood shadow I ike in the dim light, save for his own deep-colored radiation.
"Welcome," he said, and briefly clasped our gloves. We'll have to walk; those rigs of yours wouldn't fit in
my car. Follow me, please." I decided he was this curt because he likewise was anxious to get us hidden.
Trees turned the drive into a gut of darkness. We switched on our flashlights. "Can you do without
those?" Maclaren asked. "That blue-white isn't like anything a local person would use."
Rero-and-I doused them. "Suppose we link hands and you lead us," she suggested. When we had done
this, she wondered, "Are you indeed worried about the possibility of our being observed? Can you not
deny curiosity seekers access to your-" She groped for a word. They do not seem to have kin-right on
Earth. "Your property?"
"Yes, but gossip might reach the wrong ears," he explained. "That could bring on trouble."
"Of what kind? Surely you do nothing... unlawful? ... in receiving us."
"Technically no." By now I believed I had learned the nuances of the human voice sufficiently well to
hear bitterness in his. "But the Citadel has ways to make things unpleasant. For instance, you may recall
I'm an astrophysicist. These days I'm directing a survey in detail of the stars we have access
to-expensive. By hinting that funds might otherwise be cut off, a bureaucrat could get me dismissed. And
I do have independent means, but I'm a little old to go back to play boy ing."
Footfalls resounded loud on the pavement, through a rustle of leaves in a sea breeze. I toiled up the
mountainside under a burden of gear, in a cramped loneliness of my own scents and no other. The night
of Earth pressed inward.
"Of course," Maclaren went on after a while, "I may be borrowing grief. It's no secret that I'm strongly in
favor of close relationships with Arvel To date, that hasn't caused many obstacles to get thrown in my
way-though it hasn't been exactly smoothed for me either. My talking to you in private needn't necessarily
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alarm the Protector and his loyalists. It might even encourage people in the government who agree with
me. I just can't tell. Therefore, let's be as cautious as practical.
"Besides," he added, "there are individuals, yes, organizations that hate the idea of making alliance with
you. They could do something rash, if they knew you were here unguarded."
Indigo had in Iimated the same. Rero-and-I had failed to understand. "Why?" I asked into the darkness.
"Yes, I realize many will be wary of us because we are an unknown quantity. We have their kind on
Arvel. In fact, frankly, sir, the pair of us came largely in hopes of learning more about your kind."
"A hope that has been frustrated," Rero put in. "We have become convinced we are deliberately being
hurried along and kept busy, in order that we will return home still ignorant... or downright suspicious."
"Terangi Maclaren," I said, "you speak as if more is involved than exaggerated prudence. You give the
impression that certain humans want to isolate humanity from us on principle."
"That is the impression I meant to give," he replied.
Through my glove I felt how his clasp tightened. I returned the tension to him, and Rero shared it with
me.
"I'm not sure how clear I can make the situation," Maclaren said with care. "Your institutions are so
utterly unlike ours-your beliefs, your ways of looking at the universe and living in it, everything-Well,
that's part of the problem. For instance, the Hiroyama Report. Do you know about that? Hiroyama tried
to find out what your major religions are. Her book created a sensation. If a powerful, scientifically
oriented culture can hold that God is love ... with sex apparently the major part of love-well, that defies a
lot of old-established Terrestrial orthodoxies. Heresies spring up, which provokes reaction. Oh, yes,
Hiroyama did mention that Arvelans practice monogamy and fidelity, or so she thought. She couldn't be
sure, because their spokesmen never described this as a moral requirement. Therefore the new human
cults, most of them, go in for orgies and promiscuity."
Though we had encountered curious sexual pat-terns elsewhere, Rero still faltered in surprise; "Mating
for life-what else can we do?"
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"Never mind now," Maclaren said bleakly. "It's a single example of why some groups on Earth would
like to ring down the curtain forever on contact with Arvel. And by extension, with any other high-level
civilization we may come upon. For practical purposes, what matters is why the Protector fears alliance,
and his followers do.
"You see, the Citadel already has a nearly impossible job, trying to keep control over the human race,
including settlers ^on the colonial planets and the societies they're developing. Disaffection, subversion,
repeated attempts at rebellion-You mean you Arvelans have never had similar woes?"
"Why should we?" I asked in my bemusement.
Did the vague ruddiness of his aura show him nodding? "I'm not too surprised, Voah-and-Rero." (He
was that familiar with our mores. Hope blossomed small within me.) "Since you don't have anything we [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]