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could those expectations still apply? How could anyone estimate the commercial
value of the real thing?
What were the political  not to say the religious implications? Who, in the
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political near-chaos of galactic civilisation, could possibly take over
responsibility for this world? More important, who had the power to take it
away from Caradoc?
On the basis of what we'd found so far, it was a whole new ballgame.
All this, of course, I left unsaid. There were anxious ears all around us. But
Charlot knew the way my brain was taking me, because his was surely escorting
him down the same staircase to trouble.
"I think you're right," he said. "We're in much deeper water than I thought.
There's something here that we haven't even got close to yet, even in our
guesses. It might be something very simple, but . . ." His voice trailed away
into silence.
Exactly, I thought. But...
7
I spent the afternoon in pretty much the same way that I had spent the
morning, and I was soon heartily sick of it. There was important information
contained somewhere in the welter of paperwork, I was sure. But being sure of
it only made the job of sifting carefully through endless details that much
more onerous.
Long before I was due for a second break I found myself unable to concentrate.
Eventually, I had to salve my conscience by deciding that a little more
research at ground level was called for, so that I could take a walk. As I
walked over the area of clear ground separating the river from the forest,
three of the natives decided to follow me. I slowed down to let them catch up,
and we walked into the trees together.
I could think of no reason for their action in accompanying me. Surely they
could not be curious about humans after all this time living in close
proximity. It seemed as though their decision to take a walk arose out of pure
and simple gregariousness.
They didn't talk not to each other, nor to me. I remembered what Charlot said
about their spontaneous demonstration of their language to the Caradoc people.
Apparently, they had given that up. Why? Perhaps they thought it was no longer
necessary but why had they considered it necessary in the first place? Perhaps
they had expected their teaching to have some specific result, and had been
disappointed. I was tempted to try to play their own game, and begin pointing
at things and naming them, and demonstrating verbs. But I could hardly imagine
that the Caradoc linguists wouldn't have tried that, and I didn't suppose for
a moment that the aliens could begin to make sense of our languages, which
were, after all, much more complex than theirs.
For some time, in fact, I could think of no way to take advantage of the fact
that the aliens were with me. I looked at them closely, but got no more out of
that than
I already knew. They all looked alike so alike that the similarity was almost
preternatural. The unfamiliar forms of alien beings tend to make them all
alike to the unpractised human eye, but this likeness went far beyond that.
The aliens were identical.
They did not shy away from my touch they allowed me to stroke their fur and
inspect their tiny hands, but they did not try to examine me with touch they
were content to stare from their large, circular eyes. They seemed so very
thoughtful that I could not help but wonder what was going on in their minds.
When I flicked my fingers in front of their eyes they blinked reflexively, but
I
could not seem to elicit any conscious reaction from them. I didn't entertain
for a moment the thought of striking one, but it did occur to me to try to
shock them by violating their unwritten law of existence by picking some of
the brightly-coloured flowers from the bushes and the creepers, and from the
forest floor itself. I assembled a bunch of about seven, with moderately long
stalks. They watched me, but did not show surprise. Finally, I held out the
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bunch, offering it to one of them. When she made no move at all, I reached out
to take her hand so that I could put the flowers into her palm. She must have
realised what I intended, because she finally reacted. I had barely touched
her when she had gone. She just stepped back, and with bewildering speed she
vanished into the green cage of the forest. The others were gone too, in the
same instant.
I smelled each flower in turn. They were all scented. Then I dropped them, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]