copulate and bear young outside of the hex. It is for the preservation of our race and culture."
"I thought you just finished telling me this was a natural occurrence!"
"Perhaps it is. I do not make these decisions. I merely am here to help pass them along and, if need be, enforce them."
Now, that was the damnedest, boldest pickup line I ever got in my whole life! Ming said mentally to Ari after she managed to act shocked and shy enough to get away from the consul on the make.
They were now up high, at the top of the dome, where the folks without money for comfort could stay, kind of like a public park.
I'm not sure it was a line, Ari told her. We saw a number of women in and around here since then, and I've yet to see one who's not carrying an egg or a kid.
You're joking! I'm not patriotic enough for that yet, I can tell you!
Well, neither am I, although neither of us are anything like virgins.
We are in this body!
Well, yeah, but we're still old pros, let's face it. No, I been thinking that maybe we got this assignment all wrong.
Huh? You mean they sent us over here to get knocked up and stuck being Mommy?
Yeah, more or less. Core's bottled up in Zone but also isolated from the hex and what's going on there. We were the ones with the contacts in other hexes, the added agenda, and the ability to talk to folks outside Kalinda if somebody was pulling a fast one. Get us stuck over here hatching kids, and you pretty well neutralized us, didn't you?
Ming thought about that one for a while. So what could we do, really, to spoil anybody s takeover? We're still the outsiders.
I don't know, but somebody thinks we're a danger to them. Be interesting to find out who and why.
Well, that answer's not here, it's back home. And do you want to stick around as a target for every guy on the make who hangs around here? Particularly when they'll all soon be waving papers from home and crying that romantic ballad, "Duty to the race!"
Ari found that idea both amusing and frightening. No, I don't, but we have to consider that the other things we discussed earlier today with our diplomaniac was exactly what Core asked us to spot, look into, and report. The Yabbans aren't going to seriously piss us off if they can avoid it — we're next door, and will be next month and next year. They'd try and make deals with us. The fact that the consul felt they might be ready to take a hike means they already have set up alternate supplies or felt that they would still be able to get what they needed from Kalinda no matter what they said and did. And the only reason they would do that is if they thought we were already toast. Like it or not, here is where the first part of the job is for us. We're stuck, at least until we can get some answers.
Great, she sighed. Damned if we do and damned if we don't. Well, okay, let s get some sleep, then. We're gonna have to be in great shape to outrun the guys and still be in decent enough condition to snoop.
The Barrens—Pegiri
FIGURES ROSE OUT OF THE WATER LIKE ANCIENT GODS READY TO stalk the land. They moved silently and swiftly for such apparently massive creatures, oblivious to the air and the darkness, then through the gentle surf and onto the land in tight formation.
The region was called the Barrens by the natives, not because it was truly so, but because the thick growths and fetid shallows and mud made it useless for anything productive.
These newcomers from out of the sea were not natives, but they knew just where they were, and they were prepared for the grim land beyond.
Just a few steps onto the driftwood-strewn beach they fanned out and then stopped, and there was a great deal of hissing from them. Thick arms came up and pressed studs that broke seals. They stepped out of their suits, which had ceased to function when they crossed the true border from Baisatz into Pegiri, and thus had also passed from high-tech to the more restrictive semitech conditions.
The
"I thought you just finished telling me this was a natural occurrence!"
"Perhaps it is. I do not make these decisions. I merely am here to help pass them along and, if need be, enforce them."
Now, that was the damnedest, boldest pickup line I ever got in my whole life! Ming said mentally to Ari after she managed to act shocked and shy enough to get away from the consul on the make.
They were now up high, at the top of the dome, where the folks without money for comfort could stay, kind of like a public park.
I'm not sure it was a line, Ari told her. We saw a number of women in and around here since then, and I've yet to see one who's not carrying an egg or a kid.
You're joking! I'm not patriotic enough for that yet, I can tell you!
Well, neither am I, although neither of us are anything like virgins.
We are in this body!
Well, yeah, but we're still old pros, let's face it. No, I been thinking that maybe we got this assignment all wrong.
Huh? You mean they sent us over here to get knocked up and stuck being Mommy?
Yeah, more or less. Core's bottled up in Zone but also isolated from the hex and what's going on there. We were the ones with the contacts in other hexes, the added agenda, and the ability to talk to folks outside Kalinda if somebody was pulling a fast one. Get us stuck over here hatching kids, and you pretty well neutralized us, didn't you?
Ming thought about that one for a while. So what could we do, really, to spoil anybody s takeover? We're still the outsiders.
I don't know, but somebody thinks we're a danger to them. Be interesting to find out who and why.
Well, that answer's not here, it's back home. And do you want to stick around as a target for every guy on the make who hangs around here? Particularly when they'll all soon be waving papers from home and crying that romantic ballad, "Duty to the race!"
Ari found that idea both amusing and frightening. No, I don't, but we have to consider that the other things we discussed earlier today with our diplomaniac was exactly what Core asked us to spot, look into, and report. The Yabbans aren't going to seriously piss us off if they can avoid it — we're next door, and will be next month and next year. They'd try and make deals with us. The fact that the consul felt they might be ready to take a hike means they already have set up alternate supplies or felt that they would still be able to get what they needed from Kalinda no matter what they said and did. And the only reason they would do that is if they thought we were already toast. Like it or not, here is where the first part of the job is for us. We're stuck, at least until we can get some answers.
Great, she sighed. Damned if we do and damned if we don't. Well, okay, let s get some sleep, then. We're gonna have to be in great shape to outrun the guys and still be in decent enough condition to snoop.
The Barrens—Pegiri
FIGURES ROSE OUT OF THE WATER LIKE ANCIENT GODS READY TO stalk the land. They moved silently and swiftly for such apparently massive creatures, oblivious to the air and the darkness, then through the gentle surf and onto the land in tight formation.
The region was called the Barrens by the natives, not because it was truly so, but because the thick growths and fetid shallows and mud made it useless for anything productive.
These newcomers from out of the sea were not natives, but they knew just where they were, and they were prepared for the grim land beyond.
Just a few steps onto the driftwood-strewn beach they fanned out and then stopped, and there was a great deal of hissing from them. Thick arms came up and pressed studs that broke seals. They stepped out of their suits, which had ceased to function when they crossed the true border from Baisatz into Pegiri, and thus had also passed from high-tech to the more restrictive semitech conditions.
The
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