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"I wish I could believe that."
She shrugged. "It doesn't matter if you believe it or not. It's still true. Listen-" she added, "that circle that we cleared out there is an invitation to a party. It's the same invitation that they offered you and Duke and Colonel Tirelli three weeks ago, only you couldn't recognize it for what it was. Now that we know what it is, we can return the invitation. And they want to accept it. They're waiting for us. The hard part is over." She studied me intensely. "So, now what's the next move?"
"I go out there."
"And ... ?"
"And-" I stopped. "Uh-I know the answer, Fletch-but knowing the answer doesn't change anything. I'm still ru
"Right. That's why you can't go out there, James. Not yet. You're still not ready to just be with them and play with them. You're still too busy being with your own feelings." Without missing a beat, she said, "Tell me a dirty joke."
"Huh?"
"Tell me a dirty joke. Any joke. Make one up."
"Why?"
"No reason at all. Tell me a joke!"
"Um-okay. What do you call a Chtorran who farts in the bathtub and bites the bubbles?"
"Well adjusted. Tell me one I haven't heard."
"What do you say to a Chtorran who's eating a Revelationist?"
"I give up, what?"
"Bon appetit!"
She smiled. "Okay, my turn. What's the Chtorran word for midget?"
"What?"
"Hors d'oeuvre. What does a Chtorran call a jogger?"
"Fast food. I've heard that one."
"All right. One more. What do you get when you cross a Chtorran with a grizzly bear?"
"What?"
"A very cross grizzly bear." She glanced at her console.
"How'm I doing?" I asked.
"Better." She gri
I felt myself surging with excitement. And immediately tried to suppress it.
"No, it's all right," she said. "You're excited. Let yourself be excited. If you try to stop being excited, it'll just keep building. Just let it run itself out." She pushed the console aside and turned to me. "Okay, here's what I want you to do:
"I want you to go up front, sit in the copilot's seat and study the bu
"I don't want you to move until you know that you're absolutely ready. When you are, get up quietly, take off the medical harness, and go out and do whatever is appropriate. You'll know what that is too. Have you got all that?"
I nodded.
"Good." She pointed me toward the front of the chopper.
I slipped into the copilot's seat and stared out at the bu
I remembered what Tanjy had said. Listen with your whole soul.
The bu
I remembered what Fletcher had taught me. Look beyond what you're seeing. Look at the surface. Look beyond the surface. And look inside yourself to see how you're seeing.
I was begi
And ... we were too scared to play.
We couldn't even offer an invitation without hiding guns behind it.
The invitation lay empty.
The game hadn't been created yet.
Once you step into the circle, the game begins. So, the question is-what kind of a game did I want to create with the bu
The question was-what kind of a game could all of us create together?
I looked across at the rabbity little puppies and wonderedcould these creatures play the game of sentience?
It was time to find out. I levered myself out of my seat.
There was no one else in the chopper. They had left me alone. They were probably sitting in Colonel Anderson's command ship, watching the monitors.
The door was open. I stopped and removed the medical harness. I was wearing only a loincloth and a neck chain with a small transceiver hanging on it.
I stepped down out of the gunship.
I crossed to the wall of the camouflage dome and stepped through the netting.
FIFTY-SIX
THE BUNNYDOGS sat up straighter as I approached.
I stepped to the edge of the circle opposite the bu
I waved at him.
He pulled his head back quickly, disappearing again behind his-what, his papa? No, that was a human assumption. Maybe the females of this species were the larger.
The two adult bu
They reminded me of something I'd seen in the herd. There were two young women who liked to sit opposite each other, cooing and gobbling nonsense syllables. If you didn't know the language-or the lack of it-you could almost think that they were really talking. It looked like they were totally engaged in some happy casual chatter-and in one sense, they were. But there were no agreed-upon symbols, and there was no transmission of any experience at all beyond the shared one of sitting and gobbling.
If an alien didn't know human language, would it assume that they were communicating?
And then, having made that assumption, if it had turned and looked to the observers of the herd, Dr. Fletcher and myself, and studied our quiet sidewise exchanges, could that same alien have perceived a difference? If anything, the two gobbling women would have looked more in communication than Fletcher and myself. At least it was obvious that they were acting in relationship.
This was the real question.
If two creatures are sitting and gobbling at each other, how do you tell if they are talking-or just gobbling? Were these bu
It sounded like a language. But then, so did the herd noises. Two more bu
I felt a little like a guru. Naked. Patient. Mysterious. A sixth bu
There were other bu
There were more up on the hill. Some were just sitting and watching. A few were advancing.
I waited until the gathering was complete-they gobbled and greeted each new arrival; there was much exchanging of nuzzlings and nose bumps, even a few pats and hugs before settling downand then I stood up.
The bu
I stepped to the exact center of the circle.