Part 54 (1/2)
”n.o.ble. We Do Not Generally Think Of Humans As ... n.o.ble. Are These Questions Thou Wouldst Ask So Vital, Then, To Thee?”
”Not to me. To the endangered, to those who stand to die.”
She waited tensely for the catodon to reply. He had
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quieted behind her, as everyone on the foil waited breathlessly for the drama to resolve itself.
Eventually the old whale said, ”What, Then, Be A Question In The Scheme of Things? I Waste Time With Thee. Yet The Pod Will Progress, The Pod Still Thinks. Ask What Thou Wilt, Female.”
Cora tried to stop shaking. For a moment she mar- veled that the cetaceans would bother to distinguish s.e.xual characteristics among humans. Then she hur- ried on.
”First I have to tell you,” she said, feeling like an ant addressing a man, ”that we know for a fact that the baleen whales are destroying our towns. We don't know if any of the toothed are involved. If you doubt this, ask your small cousins who travel with us.” Si- lence. ”Did you know this?” she added.
”We Did Not Know This,” the whale replied. ”Yea, Why Should We Believe Thee Or The Cousins Who Slave For Thee?”
”They don't slave for us and you know that,” she snapped back, affecting an invulnerability she did not possess. ”They would never lie to you, and you know that. Certainly not on human account.”
”They Indeed Confirm What Thou Sayest. Normally The Doings Of The Baleen Are Of No More Interest To Us Than The Doings Of Mankind ... But... This Is A Most Interesting And Disturbing Thing. Very Difficult It Is To Believe.”
”I myself witnessed one of their attacks. So did my close companions.” She gestured back toward the now crowded railing of the suprafoil, where Mataroreva and every other member of the crew stood watching in mute fascination. ”They acted in unison,” she con- tinued, ”according to some prearranged, thought-out plan. Blues, fins, humpbacks, rights, probably seis and greenlands and all other plankton-eaters. We saw none of your people among them, as I said.”
”Naturally Not!” the old one roared confidently.
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CACHALOT.
”No Catodon Would Partic.i.p.ate In Anything So Fool- ish, To No Philosophical End. And Thou Sayest The Baleens Acted Together? This Is Not Possible. Our Great Cousins Have Not The Intelligence.”
”Something has the intelligence,” she insisted, ”be- cause it happened. Someone is directing them, in- structing them in what to do. We found one who actually partic.i.p.ated in at least one attack. It admitted this, yet could not explain why it did so. Whoever is controlling and directing the great whales in these at- tacks is doing so without their consent.”
”That Is Possible.” The old whale sounded a touch tired. ”But As I Said, The Doings Of The Baleens Are Of No Real Consequence. It Is Interesting, But That Is All.” He slid deeper in the water, prepara- tory to submerging.
”Wait! Think a moment, Lumpjaw. Anything that can control the baleens against their will might soon also manage to control your people.”
”That Is Not Possible.” He spoke with maddening
self-a.s.surance.
”Probably the baleens think the same thing.” She slapped the water angrily, a pitiful gesture that none- theless made her feel better. ”You pride yourselves on your privacy, your chosen isolation and time to think and philosophize. You've elected for yourselves a spe- cial nomadic, noninstrumental existence and seek to develop your own kind of civilization. Don't you see that whatever's controlling the baleens is a threat to that, even if you're right and it can never control you? Mightn't it turn the baleens against you, as it has turned them against us?”
”I Have Said That We Will Not Concern Ourselves With The Activities Of The Baleens, Nor Do We Fear Any Actions Of Our Large But Harmless Cous- ins.”
”Harmless?” She tried one last time. ”How do you
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know what they might be capable of under outside control?”