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was clearly in charge stepped forward. His whiskers quivered almost comically, but there was nothing
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funny about those teeth.
 Tell me something, he heard himself saying. The tall alien halted. Encouraged, Will continued.  Have
you been here before this? Visited our world previously without our knowing it?
There was concern in the alien s reply. It was not what Will had expected.  You have received
previously extraplanetary visits?
 No. At least, I don t think so. I mean, rumors about UFOs have been around for some time. Not that I
believe in them myself, of course. Until now, he added silently.
 No one from the Weave, the alien told him,  has been to this world before us. We have not been
studying you. It seemed to Will that the alien spoke slowly and with extreme earnestness.  You are
saying you have had no confirmed encounters with any intelligence other than your own kind?  That s
what I m saying. Will wondered what all the concern was about. He did not need the services of a
translating device to sense the tension in the cabin. It evaporated with his reply.
 It is important to us to be sure that we are the first to visit your world, the bird-thing said in English.
Will wondered why it was so important but didn t have the chance to ask because the one in charge was
speaking again.  My name is Caldaq, of the Massood. The name was not translated but instead came
across as a short squirt of consonants interrupted by spit vowels. It was almost as much whistled as
spoken, Will noted. The translator struggled with it.  I am in command of this visitation. I am a fighter by
training, captain by avocation, runner by choice, male by gender. I am once-mated and have no cubs.
My lineage is an important one. I am an ascetic omnivore.
 Now I have told you about myself. Tell us of you.
Why not? Will mused as he sat down on the couch. His life wasn t a state secret.  I m thirty-eight, male,
and single. I do some teaching, I m trying to gain recognition as a serious composer, and this boat is my
home, a choice of life-style which makes me suspect among my more conservative friends. He was
staring at the alien leader.  Are you always this nervous?  Nervous? said Caldaq.
 I ve been watching you and your friends. Your faces are in constant motion:
mouth, lips, ears, whiskers, nose. Don t you ever stop twitching?  It is a natural function of our
physiology, Caldaq explained.  Does it trouble you?
 No, it doesn t trouble me. But we don t do that and it s kind of hard to get used to.
 You are isolated. The bird-thing was speaking.  I am Wais. Our faces are not capable of such a range
of motion. Will looked on with interest as one delicate hand wove an intricate pattern in the air.
 Every species, Caldaq went on,  has its own distinctive characteristics. Those which are natural and
familiar to one may appear strange and even unpleasant to another.
 Ah. Like me brushing your companion s hand aside. Caldaq was willing to concede the point. The
more they conversed with the native, the more genuinely apologetic it seemed.
 What else can you tell us about yourself?
Will spread his hands.  Not much. Once you get past my music, there s not much else to talk about. I m
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half Cajun, though I don t guess that would mean anything to you. We call ourselves Humans. He
gestured toward the nearest port, at the calm water of the lagoon and the uninhabited islets that ringed it.
 We call our world Earth. Right now we re offshore from a small Central American country called
Belize. Pointing that out called a question to mind.  Why d you land here, anyway? Why didn t you set
down in Washington or Moscow or someplace important?
Would this isolated native know anything about the missing remotes? Caldaq doubted it, and decided
not to bring up the matter just yet.  We have a procedure for exploring new worlds. We feel it is best to
approach quietly, to study and learn certain basics before announcing our presence. Particularly when [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]