Part 4 (1/2)
”How pliable your creatures are,” Kelexel said, probing.
Such a bore, this clod, Fraffin thought. And he spoke without looking up from the viewer: ”They've strong desires. I saw to that from the beginning. And enormous fears -- they have enormous fears.”
”You saw to that, too?” Kelexel asked.
”Naturally!”
How easily he's goaded to anger, Kelexel thought.
”What is that you're watching?” Kelexel asked. ”Is it something to do with a story? Do I interfere?”
He begins to take the hook, Fraffin thought. And he said: ”I've just started a new story, a little gem.”
”A new story?” Kelexel asked, puzzled. ”Is the war epic completed then?”
”I've cut off that story,” Fraffin said. ”It wasn't going well at all. Besides, wars are beginning to bore me. But personal conflict now -- there's the thing!”
”Personal conflict?” Kelexel felt the idea was appalling.
”Ah, the intimacies of violence,” Fraffin said. ”Anyone can find drama in wars and migrations, in the rise and fall of civilizations and of religions -- but what would you think of a little capsule of a story that focuses on a creature who slays its mate?”
Kelexel shook his head. The conversation had taken a turn that left him floundering. The war epic abandoned? A new story? Why? His forebodings returned. Was there a way Fraffin could harm a fellow Chem?
”Conflict and fear,” Fraffin said. ”Ahh, what a wide avenue into the susceptibilities these are.”
”Yes . . . yes, indeed,” Kelexel murmured.
”I touch a nerve,” Fraffin said. ”Greed here, a desire there, a whim in this place -- and fear. Yes, fear. When the creature's fully prepared, I arouse its fears. Then the whole mechanism performs for me. They make themselves ill! They love! They hate! They cheat! They kill! They die.”
Fraffin smiled -- clenched teeth in the wide mouth. Kelexel found the expression menacing.
”And the most amusing part,” Fraffin said, ”the most humorous element is that they think they do it of and by themselves.”
Kelexel forced an answering smile. Many times he'd laughed at this device in a Fraffin story, but now he found the idea less than amusing. He swallowed, said: ”But wouldn't such a story . . .” He groped for the proper expression. ”. . . be so . . . small?”
Small, Fraffin thought. Such a clown, this Kelexel.
”Is it not an ultimate artistry,” Fraffin asked, ”if I use a microscopic incident to display immensity? I take the Forever-Now right here.” He lifted a clenched fist, extended it toward Kelexel, opened it to show the palm. ”I give you something you don't have -- mortality.”
Kelexel found the thought repellant -- Fraffin and his grubby personal conflict, a slaying, a petty crime. What a depressing idea. But Fraffin was absorbed once more in the s.h.i.+elded viewer on his desk. What did he see there?
”I fear I've overstayed my welcome,” Kelexel ventured.
Fraffin jerked his gaze upward. The clod was going. Good. He wouldn't go far. The net already was being prepared. What a fine, entangling mesh it had!
”The freedom of the s.h.i.+p is yours,” Fraffin said.
”Forgive me if I've taken too much of your time,” Kelexel said, rising.