The Gripping Hand (51 page)

This time Bury's smile was warm and genuine. "Our thanks. Your hospitality has been admirable, but perhaps my friends would be more comfortable aboard our own ship."

"There is one matter," Omar said. "My colleague at the Crimean Tartar fleet reports his own observation that all the humans aboard
Hecate
are alive, and only the engineer-warrior has been injured; but for reasons that the Crimean Tartar Mediator will neither explain nor discuss, he has not been permitted to speak with them. We have been promised that this will change soon.

Bury acknowledged with a nod.

Damned odd
, Chris thought. Something has changed, something happened that the Tartars don't want us to know. What? But Eudoxus and Omar knew that as well as he did.

"Do you wish to return to your ship now?" Eudoxus asked.

Bury nodded gravely. "It would be convenient."

"Medina and East India have come to another agreement, Excellency," Omar said. "But one which requires your consent. With your permission, Ali Baba will become your companion. An apprentice. Of course he will spend only part of his time with you, as he must learn our languages and customs as well."

Bury bowed slightly. "I am flattered. I find him an agreeable companion. However, you will understand, there will be times when I must be alone with my friends."

"Of course, Excellency."

"Meanwhile, this is satisfactory. We go now to draft our messages. We will, of course, read and explain to you any message we compose."

"Thank you. We will provide you with an escort," Eudoxus said. "Joyce, your viewers may be interested in this base. If you would care to see more of it, I am available to conduct you on a tour. We'll have you back on
Sinbad
in, say, two hours?"

"Perhaps another time," Chris Blaine said. What did they have in mind? Nuances here, subtle, ominous.

Eudoxus spread her hands slightly. "There may be no other time when we are both free, but of course it will be as you wish."

"No, I want to go," Joyce said. "You can tell me about the message later when we finish the interview. Eudoxus, I'd love to see the rest of your base."

"Very good. Join us when you can, Joyce," Bury said affably.

Chris as a Navy officer knew that he didn't have Bury's authority. If Bury saw no way to stop her or them, how could Chris? He'd have to use persuasion —

Outmaneuvered. Joyce was gone, Eudoxus leading and a Warrior behind. Bury and Omar followed at a leisurely pace, chatting, Bury carrying Ali Baba. They left Chris and Cynthia to bring up the rear.

After fifteen hours in the hidden depths of
Cerberus
, Victoria arrowed through the airlock with the agility of a Messenger. Glenda Ruth was jolted.

"
Victoria?
Victoria, what are th — "

"We have to talk. Ambassadors are arriving."

"Ambassadors from where?"

"Second, from the kingdom that allies with your ships called
Sinbad
and
Atropos
, henceforth Medina Trading Company."

Jennifer smiled acknowledgment. "Medina—"

"Later," Victoria said. "The Medina ship will rendezvous here; Vermin City makes a convenient target. But the first is already aboard. He speaks for former allies of Medina, henceforth East India Trading Company. The two are now involved in a dominance dance. We must settle certain matters before he may see you. We've been verbal-dancing for some days."

Glenda Ruth looked at the screen that hid Terry and Doctor Doolittle. "Can we summon a human doctor?"

"He is in no more danger than you are," Victoria said. "How is it that one of our Engineers has turned male without first giving birth?"

"Oops," Jennifer said.

"And so has one of our Warriors," Victoria said, "and although Watchmakers are difficult to keep track of—"

"How do you feel?"

"We must settle this now. Have you brought alien death among us? What did you say, Glenda Ruth?"

"How do you
feel,
Victoria?"

The Mediator tasted the question, as if she found the flavor novel and fascinating. "I feel good. Motivated. The air is sweet, our food seems up to specs, my appetite—" Victoria suddenly reached between her legs. "Talk fast," she said. "For your lives."

"I have a recording to play for you."

 
BLAINE INSTITUTE REPORTS, Volume 26, Number 5, Imperial Library number ACX-7743DL-235910:26:5

 

 
Approaches to Stability of the Mote Civilization

 

 
Ishikara, Mary Anne; Dashievko, Ahmed; Grodnik, Vladimir I.; Lambert, George G.; Rikorsky, W. L; and Talbot, Fletcher E.

 

"The C-L Symbiote,"

 

 
Research reported in this document was funded by grants from the Imperial Ministry of Defense, the Imperial Select Commission for Governing Relations with Aliens, and the Blaine Foundation.

 

 
Summary

 

 
The Blaine Symbiote or C-L (Contraceptive-Longevity) worm is bioengineered from a Motie benign parasitic organism similar to platyhelminths. The resulting C-L organism is a symbiote that lives in the Motie body and produces the same hormone that the male testes produce.

 

 
The original symbiotes were universally present in the intestinal tracts of all Moties studied. The first forms were detected in the Motie Engineer taken aboard
MacArthur,
but none of those specimens survived. The current C-L symbiote has been bred from a strain taken from the Motie known as Ivan. It is known to survive in Mediator castes, and there is no reason to suppose it will not thrive in all Motie castes.

 

 
In all Motie castes so far examined there has been one testis, and the documents brought by the Motie ambassadors, and the Moties themselves, do not contradict this, This testis normally withers. Hap-good et. al ( 1 ) have speculated that this withering is triggered in part by pheromones given off by a pregnant female, but it is known (see Ivanov and Spector, (2)) that the process is more complex than that.

 

 
Upon withering of the single testis, the Motie turns female. Pregnancy must follow soon after or the Motie sickens and dies, with symptoms not unlike vitamin deficiency. See Renner, K. (3), Fowler, S. (4), and Blaine and Blaine (5), as well as
The Report of the MacArthur
Expedition
(6), for details. The process of giving birth excites cells in the birth canal, and more male testes form.

 

 
The C-L symbiote normally sites itself anywhere in the body cavity and does not wither. Present data indicate that several C-Ls have no more effect than one. It is believed that this is due to excretion of surplus hormone via Plumbing-Six, tentatively the kidney.

 

 
We have observed no signs that C-L will breed in a host Motie, undoubtedly due to inhibition by the hormone itself. Consequently C-L must be bred externally in an environment that provides sufficient fluid around them to flush the hormone.

 

 
Video Report (Reuters)

 

Blaine Institute Announces New Developments in Bioengineering

 

 
(Film clip: Lord and Lady Blaine, the Hon. Glenda Ruth Blaine, students at the Blaine Institute, and His Excellency the Ambassador from Mote Prime, announcing publication of results of bioengineering development.)

 

"Of course that record could have been made at any time," Victoria said.

"It has me in it."

"Or a very good double, Glenda Ruth. It would take much forethought to plan far in advance to deceive us into believing that a Mediator can survive this long—but your Empire has both means and motive."

"I'm in the pictures, too," Jennifer said.

"Yes. You would require two doubles and two surgical alterations of adults. Is this beyond your capability?"

Freddy's eyes wandered from the screen to Glenda Ruth to the screen . . . and he shook his head.

Victoria, watching him carefully, said, "Jock's survival surprised you, Freddy, when you learned of it from Jennifer and Glenda Ruth. With her training, could Glenda Ruth deceive you? And Jennifer?"

"It's not that. Think, Victoria. If that's not Jennifer and Glenda Ruth, then it's two actors just out of surgery who have to fool Motie Mediators, and know they've done it!"

Good, Freddy! "This game gives us no profit," Glenda Ruth said. "Victoria, you already feel better than you have in years! And your Engineer, and your Warrior, are they sick?"

"Is this reversible in fertile castes?" Victoria demanded.

"Probably. With difficulty, but very probably. Is the native parasite endemic to space civilizations?"

"If so, I do not know of it. It is no skill of mine. Would I be infected with a parasite and not know?"

"Why not? People often are," Freddy said.

"Even those who live in isolation? I see you believe so." The
Motie paused, and whatever expressions Glenda Ruth had been
able to read were replaced by a different mask. "I must think on
this."

"Wait.
There
." She could have remained silent—

Too late. Victoria turned. "What?"

"I don't have any better argument than
that
." Glenda Ruth pointed. "On the screen, Victoria."

The busy spacecraft of Captor Fleet had torn away a tremendous strip of the city's skin. Pandemonium lay exposed, a hive of cells still sparking with defenses. Corpses floated away in a pestilential cloud of black dots. The ships pulled a square kilometer of transparent skin over the wound and moved inside to work. Nothing was to be lost.

"That's your past, a million years or more of your past. Breeding yourselves into a starving cannibal horde, then tearing your numbers down in blood. Vermin City. That's your future, forever, without us." Glenda Ruth waved at the screens. "It's Vermin City or the Crazy Eddie Worm."

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

 

—Benjamin Franklin,
Poor Richard's Almanac

 

Chris, it's time," Kevin Renner said. "Tell me about you and Joyce."

Blaine looked from Renner to Horace Bury. No help there. Sinbad's lounge had grown larger yet; it seemed very large, and very empty.

"All right, Captain, we were sleeping together, so to speak, and then we weren't. I'm more worried about what the Moties might get out of her."

"So am I. Try again."

Chris Blaine saw no point in pretending to misunderstand. "I got to know her. I could see what she was looking for in me, in a man, and when I got some free time, I, hell. I let her see it. But when we reached MGC-R-31 and Motie ships came spitting out . . ." How to put this?

"She wanted you to keep your promises."

Chris gaped. "Well, but I never—"

The Captain said, "What she wants from a man is knowledge and power. That was what you let her see. But when Moties appeared, she wanted in on the action. You couldn't give her that. You couldn't even let her keep interrupting you while you were on duty. What else couldn't you give her?"

"Aw, hell. Captain, she wanted to know what my sister's bringing. I don't know! Not certainly, I only know what Dad and Mom, what the Institute, wanted."

"Which is enough," Renner said.

"Well, no . . . well. That was the trouble. I couldn't tell her as much as I do know because the Mediators would read her. They'd be doing that now if she knew anything. Now she won't talk to me at all."

"Chris, you
did
make promises. You used body language and nuances and all the things Jock and Charlie taught you. You've got to be more careful of how you use people."

Chris's ears burned.

"If you told her anything, if she
learned
anything that the Moties shouldn't know, tell me now."

"Captain, she heard you talking about Crazy Eddie's worm. She was sure I must know all about it. There was nothing I could do to tell her different."