– they might devour.
“What a monster!” he breathed, relaxing for the first time in many minutes. A warm feeling of pride – even exhilaration – swept over him. He knew that he had passed another test; he had won Brant’s and Kumar’s approval and accepted it with gratitude.
“Isn’t that thing – dangerous?” he asked.
“Of course; that’s why we have the warning buoy.”
“Frankly, I’d be tempted to kill it.”
“Why?” Brant asked, genuinely shocked. “What harm does it do?”
“Well – surely a creature that size must catch an enormous number of fish.”
“Yes, but only Lassan – not fish that we can eat. And here’s the interesting thing about it. For a long time we wondered how it could persuade fish – even the stupid ones here – to swim into its maw. Eventually we discovered that it secretes some chemical lure, and that’s what started us thinking about electric traps. Which reminds me …”
Brant reached for his comset.
“Tarna Three calling Tarna Autorecord – Brant here. We’ve fixed the grid. Everything functioning normally. No need to acknowledge. End message.”
But to everyone’s surprise, there was an immediate response from a familiar voice.
“Hello, Brant, Dr. Lorenson. I’m happy to hear that. And I’ve got some interesting news for you. Like to hear it?”
“Of course, Mayor,” Brant answered as the two men exchanged glances of mutual amusement. “Go ahead.”
“Central Archives has dug up something surprising. All this has happened before. Two hundred fifty years ago, they tried to build a reef out from North Island by electroprecipitation – a technique that had worked well on Earth. But after a few weeks, the underwater cables were broken – some of them stolen. The matter was never followed up because the experiment was a total failure, anyway. Not enough minerals in the water to make it worthwhile. So there you are – you can’t blame the Conservers. They weren’t around in those days.”
Brant’s face was such a study in astonishment that Loren burst out laughing.
“And you tried to surprise me!” he said. “Well, you certainly proved that there were things in the sea that I’d never imagined.”
“But now it looks as if there are some things that you never imagined, either.”
20. Idyll
T he Tarnans thought it was very funny and pretended not to believe him.
“First you’ve never been in a boat – now you say you can’t ride a bicycle!”
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Mirissa had chided him, with a twinkle in her eye. “The most efficient method of transportation ever invented – and you’ve never tried it!”
“Not much use in spaceships and too dangerous in cities,” Loren had retorted. “Anyway, what is there to learn?”
He soon discovered that there was a good deal; biking was not quite as easy as it looked. Though it took real talent actually to fall off the low centre-of-gravity, small-wheeled machines (he managed it several times) his initial attempts were frustrating. He would not have persisted without Mirissa’s assurance that it was the best way to discover the island – and his own hope that it would also be the best way to discover Mirissa.
The trick, he realized after a few more tumbles, was to ignore the problem completely and leave matters to the body’s own reflexes. That was logical enough; if one had to think about every footstep one took, ordinary walking would be impossible. Although Loren accepted this intellectually, it was some time before he could trust his instincts. Once he had overcome that barrier, progress was swift. And at last, as he had hoped, Mirissa offered to show him the remoter byways of the island.
It would have been easy to believe that they were the only two people in the world, yet they could not be more than five kilometres from the village. They had certainly ridden much farther than that, but the narrow cycle track had been designed to take the most
“What a monster!” he breathed, relaxing for the first time in many minutes. A warm feeling of pride – even exhilaration – swept over him. He knew that he had passed another test; he had won Brant’s and Kumar’s approval and accepted it with gratitude.
“Isn’t that thing – dangerous?” he asked.
“Of course; that’s why we have the warning buoy.”
“Frankly, I’d be tempted to kill it.”
“Why?” Brant asked, genuinely shocked. “What harm does it do?”
“Well – surely a creature that size must catch an enormous number of fish.”
“Yes, but only Lassan – not fish that we can eat. And here’s the interesting thing about it. For a long time we wondered how it could persuade fish – even the stupid ones here – to swim into its maw. Eventually we discovered that it secretes some chemical lure, and that’s what started us thinking about electric traps. Which reminds me …”
Brant reached for his comset.
“Tarna Three calling Tarna Autorecord – Brant here. We’ve fixed the grid. Everything functioning normally. No need to acknowledge. End message.”
But to everyone’s surprise, there was an immediate response from a familiar voice.
“Hello, Brant, Dr. Lorenson. I’m happy to hear that. And I’ve got some interesting news for you. Like to hear it?”
“Of course, Mayor,” Brant answered as the two men exchanged glances of mutual amusement. “Go ahead.”
“Central Archives has dug up something surprising. All this has happened before. Two hundred fifty years ago, they tried to build a reef out from North Island by electroprecipitation – a technique that had worked well on Earth. But after a few weeks, the underwater cables were broken – some of them stolen. The matter was never followed up because the experiment was a total failure, anyway. Not enough minerals in the water to make it worthwhile. So there you are – you can’t blame the Conservers. They weren’t around in those days.”
Brant’s face was such a study in astonishment that Loren burst out laughing.
“And you tried to surprise me!” he said. “Well, you certainly proved that there were things in the sea that I’d never imagined.”
“But now it looks as if there are some things that you never imagined, either.”
20. Idyll
T he Tarnans thought it was very funny and pretended not to believe him.
“First you’ve never been in a boat – now you say you can’t ride a bicycle!”
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Mirissa had chided him, with a twinkle in her eye. “The most efficient method of transportation ever invented – and you’ve never tried it!”
“Not much use in spaceships and too dangerous in cities,” Loren had retorted. “Anyway, what is there to learn?”
He soon discovered that there was a good deal; biking was not quite as easy as it looked. Though it took real talent actually to fall off the low centre-of-gravity, small-wheeled machines (he managed it several times) his initial attempts were frustrating. He would not have persisted without Mirissa’s assurance that it was the best way to discover the island – and his own hope that it would also be the best way to discover Mirissa.
The trick, he realized after a few more tumbles, was to ignore the problem completely and leave matters to the body’s own reflexes. That was logical enough; if one had to think about every footstep one took, ordinary walking would be impossible. Although Loren accepted this intellectually, it was some time before he could trust his instincts. Once he had overcome that barrier, progress was swift. And at last, as he had hoped, Mirissa offered to show him the remoter byways of the island.
It would have been easy to believe that they were the only two people in the world, yet they could not be more than five kilometres from the village. They had certainly ridden much farther than that, but the narrow cycle track had been designed to take the most
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