THE CATERPILLARS QUESTION

When the shaman had finished, his warriors continued making a hullabaloo. Candy had come up to Jack meanwhile but stood without speaking. Her right shoulder and left leg had been wounded, but these were healing swiftly.

"They saw us escape through the death-shadow," Tappy said.

"However, they're too strongly conditioned against going through the shadows. Mille

And, dying, would go to that world, anyway, Jack thought.

The airboat, which the honkers had appropriated from the spaceship, was speeding across the plain. It contained only one person, the pilot. Apparently, it was simple to operate. Otherwise, the untrained honker wouldn't be able to handle it.

"As soon as we jumped through the shadow, they fled into the woods, only two of them being hit, one killed, one wounded," Tappy continued. "When they got there, they released the venomous flies they hadn't had a chance to let loose in the ship because the bubbles had enclosed them too swiftly. Then the three with beamers shot at the robots. The flies injected their venom in the human Gaol who followed the robots, and the Gaol dropped where they stood. Cyborgs came out, too, and the flies bit their metal coverings in vain. But enough stung the few areas of exposed flesh surface to paralyze them, too. This discouraged the few surviving Gaol.

"Candy and the Latest could have gotten away down the shaft inside the tree. But the shaman feared that the ship's heavy rays would be used to excavate the earth and pursue the warriors until they were caught and wiped out. So, he gave the order to charge.

They lost a few, but they got all those who had come out of the ship. Then the Integrator had all the flies released inside the ship.

He thinks that the detectors in the ship weren't set for anything which had a mass as small as the flies did. Or the detectors weren't working because the fungus had gotten to them. In any event, the flies swarmed all over the ship, barred only from entering rooms with closed hatches. There weren't many of those, and none of the crew except the captain was protected then by a bubble."

"But the captain still had his involition radiator," Jack said.

"Not by then!" Tappy said. She gave a short nervous laugh.

The fungus was still working in some parts of the ship. It caused malfunctions in the involition radiator mechanism. It might've been quickly repaired if the technicians hadn't been paralyzed or killed or locked in rooms with closed hatches. The automatic mechanical-repair devices were also malfunctioning. But he did order robots to troubleshoot the circuits. They might've done the job in time to restore the radiator before the honkers entered. But they had a big task because so much equipment and so many cables we;e impaired."

"How d'd the Integrator know that?" Jack said. "I'd think he'd have been afraid to venture into the ship."

"He sent Candy to scout it. She isn't subject to the involition broadcaster. Why should she be? The Gaol had her programmed to do all they wanted her to do. It never occurred to them when they made her that she would resist their commands. They didn't figure on the Imago empathy affecting her."

"And?"

"And she went in and looked the situation over and then returned to report."

"And the honkers stormed on in?"

"Right. But by then the captain, who had been in the bubble, had managed to get a gas-supplier to him, By a still-functioning robot, I suppose. I don't think he could have communicated with the robot by radio or whatever means he nonenally used. The equipment for that would've been impaired by the fungus. we probably used hand signals or whatever to tell the robot to bring protective cloths and a gas-supplier to him. The supplier was some sort of scuba device, according to the Integrator. The captain was protected against the fly bites by heavy blankets thrown over his exterior skeleton, by gloves, and so forth, also brought by the robot. The captain was out of the bubble and just about to operate the ship controls manually when the Latest showed up.

The Integrator said he doubts that the captain could have worked the controls because the fungus probably had wrecked all the electrical circuits.

"Anyway, the Integrator attacked the captain in the control room. Instead of just shooting the captain, who didn't have a weapon yet, he tackled him with bare hands."

"Why?" Jack said. "That was stupid!"

"Not by honker standards. It's something to do with their honor and prestige. Anyway, the shaman and the captain had an awful struggle while the other honkers stood by and watched. They'd been ordered not to interfere. Of course, if the Gaol won, then the honkers could shoot him. Despite losing an eye and a tentacle, the shaman strangled the captain and then cut off his head as a trophy. The honkers will sing a song about the epic fight for a long time."

"Sing? They can't sing."

"Their equivalent, anyway."

The Latest were 'llbilant and should be. They had, from their viewpoint, won a great victory. But it was really only a very small battle which did not affect the course of the war. The Gaol empire was set back a trifle, and it would not be long before their forces would be here. If, indeed, they were not already here. He looked at the sky. Only a few wispy clouds floated there. However, there could be hundreds of space-dreadnoughts assembled in a stationary orbit, and he would not be able to see them.

Tappy put her hand on his arm.

"Look! "

He turned. Here came the airboat shooting across the plain.

Though he could not distinguish individual figures at this distance from it, he could see that the interior of the vessel was crowded with honkers. Something else had also been loaded into the airboat. By the time that it stopped about forty feet from him, he recognized the Gaol cyborg, Garth. It was partly exposed through the pile of honkers on it.

The canopy slid back. Honkers spilled out, reminding him of the tiny circus cars from which a seemingly unending line of clowns emerged. Other honkers had unloaded a collapsible wooden ramp-how had they crammed that into the vessel?and had propped it up against the edge of the canopy.

Garth rolled out of the boat on his wheels. When it had gotten to the ground, the honkers pulled the ramp away. The Integrator spoke to an aide, and she hurried to the pilot and conversed with him. Then the canopy slid shut, the boat rose, turned, and accelerated away.

Garth came speedily to Tappy. It whistled a long series of dots and dashes. When it stopped, Candy said, "Garth says that it is ready to interpret for the commander of the fleet."

"Fleet?" Jack said, but he knew what she meant.

Candy pointed upward. He looked again at the sky and still saw only clouds.

"Garth has been receiving messages for the last half hour," Candy said.

Tappy spoke as if she were suddenly short of breath. "What did the commander say?"

"She wants to send down a negotiator. He'll come down in a small vessel, and he'll be alone and unarmed. He just wants to present the empire's demands."

"I thought he wanted to negotiate?"

"The Gaol don't know the difference between demanding and negotiating. You should know that, Jack."

"Yeah, I know. Candy, when does the commander want the meeting to take place?"

"As soon as possible."

"Tell Garth to tell the commander she'll get the t'line of the meeting shortly. We have to confer about it first."

While the android was whistling at the cyborg, Jack swiftly considered the possible consequences of permitting the Gaol to come down in the spaceboat. Why this face-to-face confrontation? Why not just talk via Garth? It could not be because the commander wanted a close look at the situation. She could see them as clearly through her instruments as if she were hovering just above them.