Part 21 (2/2)

”I thank you,” Ttomalss said, his voice dry. ”Now, instead of praising the question, would you be so kind as to answer it?”

Straha laughed. ”If I happen to feel like it,” he said. ”Do you enjoy this chance to be rude to a male whose proper rank is so much higher than your own?”

That was a well-aimed claw. Ttomalss had to look inside himself before replying, ”Yes, perhaps I do.” After a heartbeat's pause, he added, ”And you still have not answered the question.”

”Since you show a certain basic honesty, perhaps I will.” Straha still sounded amused. ”I fear the answer will be more ambiguous than you might prefer, however.”

”Life is full of ambiguities,” Ttomalss said.

”Well, well. My congratulations,” Straha told him. ”You are not a hatch-ling any more. You have become an adult.”

More than half mockingly, Ttomalss bent into the posture of respect. ”Once more, I thank you,” he said. ”And, once more, you have not answered.”

He wondered if Straha would keep on playing word games with him, but the ex-s.h.i.+plord just said, ”Oh, very well. Part of it is Yeager as Yeager, and part is Yeager as an American. That not-empire stresses individualism to a degree the Race finds incomprehensible. Good Big Uglies can be very fine indeed under that system, and Yeager is. Bad Big Uglies have full scope for their evil, inept ones for their incompetence. There are many great successes in the United States, and as many dreadful failures.”

”Yes, I have heard something of this,” Ttomalss said. ”In my view, it is freedom turned to license.”

”I think the same thing,” Straha said. ”Do you know that, not long after the s.h.i.+ps of the colonization fleet were attacked, I told an American reporter I believed his not-empire had made the a.s.sault? He was fully prepared to print the story in a leading periodical until I explained I was merely yanking his tailstump.”

”The government of the United States would never have permitted such a story to appear,” Ttomalss said.

”So I thought as well, Senior Researcher, but he a.s.sured me I was wrong. Other American Big Uglies have told me the same thing,” Straha said. ”The Americans insist that an altogether untrammeled flow of information produces the most rapid progress-their preferred word for change. If progress is seen as desirable, one would be hard pressed to disagree with them.”

”Amazing,” Ttomalss said. Even he was unsure whether he meant the American Tosevites' preposterous lack of concern for security or their astonis.h.i.+ng pace of technological change.

”There is, I trust you will agree, a certain irony to my present situation,” Straha said.

”Oh, indeed,” Ttomalss replied. ”But then, your situation in the United States was full of irony almost from the beginning, was it not? Most of what has changed lately is the scope of things.”

”I like the way you put that: the scope of things,” Straha said. ”Before, the Big Uglies used me without much trusting me because I had betrayed the Race. Now the Race will use me without much trusting me because I am betraying the Americans. This leaves me nowhere to go, no one to turn to.”

Ttomalss had wondered if Straha fully understood his own situation. Hearing that, the psychological researcher decided he had one less thing to worry about.

Because of whom she knew, Ka.s.squit found herself sitting on several secrets that, when they hatched from their eggs, might go up like explosive-metal bombs. The first electronic message from Jonathan Yeager asking for the Race's help in locating his father had come some days before.

I shall do what I can, she'd written back. she'd written back. I do not know how much that will be. I do not know how much that will be.

She had liked Sam Yeager well enough in their couple of meetings, and rather better than well enough in their electronic correspondence. But her feelings for Jonathan Yeager were the main factor in her seeking to help his father.

She had telephoned Reffet's office first of all. Because she'd discovered that Sam Yeager, wild Tosevite, was roaming the Race's electronic network, she thought she might get prompt attention from the fleetlord. And, in fact, she did; he returned her call quite quickly. When she explained what she wanted and why, he said, ”As a matter of fact, that matter is already under investigation. No decision has yet been made as to whether to raise it with the relevant Tosevite authorities.”

”I... see,” Ka.s.squit said, not seeing at all. ”There is some concern for this Big Ugly's safety.”

”I understand that,” Reffet said. ”There is concern for more than the safety of this one Big Ugly, I a.s.sure you.”

That was all he would say. Ka.s.squit tried calling Fleetlord Atvar, but his adjutant would not forward her call. She reported the curious and not altogether satisfactory conversations to Jonathan Yeager.

And then, almost without warning, Ttomalss departed for the surface of Tosev 3. ”I must aid in the interrogation of a returned defector, a s.h.i.+plord who has spent almost all of his time on Tosev 3 in the not-empire of the United States,” he said.

”The infamous Straha?” Ka.s.squit asked, and Ttomalss made the affirmative gesture. Ka.s.squit's mind leaped. ”Does his arrival have anything to do with the disappearance of the Big Ugly called Sam Yeager?”

She succeeded in astonis.h.i.+ng her mentor. ”How could you possibly know that?” Ttomalss demanded.

”I am, you will remember, still in touch with Jonathan Yeager,” Ka.s.squit replied, ”and I know that Sam Yeager and Straha are acquaintances. The connection struck me as logical.”

”I... see,” Ka.s.squit said, much as Ka.s.squit had to Reffet. ”That is very perceptive of you. My data indicate that Sam Yeager and Straha are not merely acquaintances but friends. I hope to confirm this in discussion with Straha.” He paused. ”That remark, in fact, was perceptive enough to make me believe you deserve to wear your junior researcher's body paint not merely to show you are my ward and my apprentice, but with all appropriate rights and privileges. Would you like me to initiate the approval process when I find the time?”

”I thank you, superior sir,” Ka.s.squit exclaimed. ”That would be very generous of you.” It would also give her a secure place of her own in the Race's hierarchy, which was not to be despised. And... ”How your colleagues who disliked you for undertaking to raise a Big Ugly hatchling will be discomfited to see that hatchling taking a place in their profession.”

”I have not even the faintest notion of what you are talking about,” Ttomalss said, so matter-of-factly that Ka.s.squit almost failed to notice the irony.

Then he'd gone down to the surface of Tosev 3. He kept in touch with Ka.s.squit through electronic messages and telephone calls. Jonathan Yeager also kept in touch with her through electronic messages. The wild Big Ugly, she gradually realized, was frantic with concern over his father's safety. Ka.s.squit wondered if anyone would ever feel that much concern for her. She doubted it; such things were not in the style of the Race. Noting his intensity made her wish they were.

Do you know why your father has disappeared? she wrote him. she wrote him.

Of course I do, he wrote back. he wrote back. He disappeared because he knew too much. He disappeared because he knew too much. He added the Race's conventional symbol for an emphatic cough. He added the Race's conventional symbol for an emphatic cough.

Too much about what? Ka.s.squit asked. Ka.s.squit asked.

About things it was dangerous to know about, Jonathan Yeager replied. Jonathan Yeager replied.

”Well, of course,” Ka.s.squit said with a snort when she saw that. She wrote, What sorts of things? What sorts of things?

I told you: the sorts of things that are dangerous to know, the wild Big Ugly answered. the wild Big Ugly answered.

That made Ka.s.squit hiss in annoyance. Jonathan Yeager was being deliberately obscure. His father had played the same sorts of games with electronic messages. After a moment, though, her annoyance subsided. Are you not being more specific for reasons related to security? Are you not being more specific for reasons related to security? she inquired. she inquired.

Exactly so, he replied. he replied. I am sorry, but that is how things are. If you knew everything, it might put you in danger, and it might put me in more danger than I am already in, too. I am sorry, but that is how things are. If you knew everything, it might put you in danger, and it might put me in more danger than I am already in, too.

Ka.s.squit hadn't thought about danger to Jonathan Yeager. Once she did think about it, though, it made sense. If Sam Yeager had disappeared because of something he knew, and if Jonathan Yeager knew the same thing, logic dictated that he too might disappear. Ka.s.squit did make one attempt to learn more, writing, If this knowledge is dangerous, perhaps you should pa.s.s it on so that it is not lost if something unfortunate happens to you. If this knowledge is dangerous, perhaps you should pa.s.s it on so that it is not lost if something unfortunate happens to you.

I thank you, but I think I had better not, wrote the wild Big Ugly who had been her lover-an English word he used to describe a relations.h.i.+p with which the Race was not familiar. wrote the wild Big Ugly who had been her lover-an English word he used to describe a relations.h.i.+p with which the Race was not familiar. I also think my father took care of this matter, to make sure the data would not disappear with him. I also think my father took care of this matter, to make sure the data would not disappear with him.

Puzzle pieces that hadn't quite fit together now suddenly did. He pa.s.sed the data on to the s.h.i.+plord Straha, who brought them to Cairo with him, He pa.s.sed the data on to the s.h.i.+plord Straha, who brought them to Cairo with him, Ka.s.squit wrote. She did not include the conventional symbol for an interrogative cough. Ka.s.squit wrote. She did not include the conventional symbol for an interrogative cough.

Jonathan Yeager waited longer before replying this time, as if thinking through just what his response ought to be. When it finally came, it was cautious: I believe that to be a truth, yes. I believe that to be a truth, yes. He broke off the electronic conversation a little later, perhaps from concern that he might reveal too much. He broke off the electronic conversation a little later, perhaps from concern that he might reveal too much.

What he'd already said was enough-much more than enough-to stimulate Ka.s.squit's always active curiosity. Straha had been a stench in the scent receptors of the Race ever since his spectacular defection. He had been favorably received on his return to Cairo. Ka.s.squit knew that from Ttomalss. He had to have learned something important to get a favorable reception from Atvar. That reinforced the notion that Sam Yeager had known something vital and pa.s.sed it on to the renegade s.h.i.+plord.

The next time she spoke with Ttomalss, she asked him, ”What spectacular piece of information did Straha learn from Sam Yeager?”

She was pleased when Ttomalss did not bother pretending he had no idea of what she was talking about. What he did say was, ”I had better not tell you. The information is inflammatory enough that I am lucky-if that is the word I want, which I doubt-to have been entrusted with it myself.”

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