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II
The orgy hall (what else could you call it?) was an afterthought. It seemed the Boys hadn't thought of putting one in when they built Dikta City. The dikta had repaired the omission by building a kind of infinity sign on the roof, composed of twelve of the mass-produced triangular bedrooms arranged like two pies of six wedges each, with two baths set between. They had knocked out all the i
When Corbell arrived there were dikta on every horizontal surface, beds and couches and coffee tables, and more coming in. Half a dozen women gestured invitation from one of the beds. Corbell accepted.
His nervousness left him quickly. Rippling water bed and warm woman-flesh formed his pillows, and it was altogether delightful. Out of courtesy and because she was nearest, he lay with an older woman first. She expressed no disappointment, but he was too quick and he knew it. After all that time, to hurry... and still it felt like a mighty victory. "I gave this up forever," he said, and thanked her with his eyes.
Now he beat his chest and warbled the Challenge of the Great Ape, and took a woman with pronounced oriental features and warm, skilled hands. This time it was longer, better. The partial baldness of these women made them more exotic. Their breasts were alike, large in diameter but flattened; even in older women they did not sag.
They asked him about his sensations. Even with his wife, Corbell had had difficulty analyzing his own reflexes, and he had trouble now. They probed delicately, with questions and with stroking fingertips, exploring his ancient nervous system and telling him about their own.
A younger man joined them. Two women left, were replaced by two more. Corbell scratched T'teeruf's back while she was in sexual congress with the other man. Was he through for the night?
Evidently not- The man was using his hands and toes, attempting to satisfy five Women at a time, reminding Corbell of old paintings from India. Egotist! But it seemed fair, given the proportion of women to men.
When inspiration came, Corbell tried those variations himself. It took some concentration... and he had never been in practice. He was tentative, a bit clumsy.
One of the women asked him about it. He told her. One woman to a man... monogamy... no children's immortality... The faces around him closed down like masks, and the woman changed the subject.
He hardly noticed. He was drunk on the hormones bubbling in his blood. He watched the other man and two women, trying to follow what they were doing, but it all came out as a tangle of arms and legs.
"There are lost skills," T'teeruf told him a bit wistfully. "Positions used in free-fall. Now they exist only in the tales."
He tried the sauna (crowded) and the bathtub (crowded). Hot water churned with bubbles and the currents generated by a couple on the far side: Gording and the older woman who had been his first since the corpsicle tank. Wet women rubbed against him. A water splashing war erupted and died out. Corbell and a young woman with golden hair made love, sitting cross-legged in the tub facing each other.
That was when he looked up and saw the Boys: half a dozen of them seated on the edge of an open airwell with their feet hanging down toward the tub. They passed comments to each other while they enjoyed the show. Ktoffisp caught him looking and waved.
The girl's eyes followed Corbell's upward, then dropped in disinterest. Okay, it didn't bother her... When Ktollisp waved again, Corbell waved back.
In the bedroom in One City there had been an old videotape of two couples demonstrating lovemaking positions. Even then Corbell had sensed the presence of an audience. Now he knew. They had been there at the coffee table: Boys or Girls watching borrowed dikta, or even (how old was that tape?) Boys and Girls mixed, before the great rift.
The orgy's impetus dwindled. Now half of Dikta City clustered on the beds and couches and coffee tables in half of the bedroom complex, questioning Corbell. His audience thi
The first man to see the bottom of the universe, he had his audience at last. Euphoria!
Suddenly he was yawning uncontrollably.
No, they didn't use the bedrooms for sleeping. They slept in a ground-floor room. Gording volunteered to walk him over. The fresh air cooled his damp body and cleared his head. The stars were slightly misted over. Gording pointed to a steady pink-tinged star in the north. "Corbell, you came from space recently. What is that?"
"A world like a little Jupiter. It shouldn't be there, but it is."
"It grows brighter, but it does not move against the pattern of fixed stars."
"That bothered Krayhayft, too." It was brighter, wasn't it? "Listen, I'm too tired to think."
The sleeping room was a kind of greenhouse. The sleeping surface was tall grass, living grass, already covered by bodies. Gording and Corbell found space, lay down and slept.
The sun shining through glass walls woke him. Four women were still curled on the grass, isolated. The rest were gone.
He had daydreamed of nights like last night, when he was much younger. Without the bald heads, of course. So what? He was lucky they saw him as human. Lucky he could still see them as human, too. Their bodies hadn't changed much. Their minds had changed more; they seemed geniuses... and they seemed placid in their slavery.
If they hadn't freed themselves from the Boys in all those aeons, how could Corbell? Corbell remembered that there was a possible answer... which had to be tested.
A ceremony was in progress at the Boy encampment. Eight dikta males (he must have missed one yesterday) were presenting five boychildren to the tribe. Of the three cupbearers, Krayhayft who seemed to be the oldest now seemed to be in charge. The rest of the Boys watched solemnly. Three carried the remaining cat-tails around their necks.
Corbell decided against joining them; he took a place by himself and kept his mouth shut. His chance would come.
The children appeared to be five to seven years old. They were overawed and immensely proud. Of the adults, it was Gording who named each child and described him: his strength, his accomplishments, his habits good and bad. For a moment Corbell thought one of the children was being rejected, and that didn't fit his preconceptions at all. Then he realized that the boy-child's name had been rejected. He was being given a new one.
The ceremony broke up suddenly. The boy-children stayed with the Boys; the men went off talking together. Krayhayft called to Corbell. "I know that walk and that look."
Corbell went over.
"The walk means you have used muscles in unaccustomed labor. I know the bright smile and red eyes, too."
Corbell gri
"You had fun?"
"You'll never know."
"I never will. Some of the boy-children we take try to be the best so that they can be dikta. Do you believe that?"
"Sure. Did you?"
Krayhayft scowled. "It didn't matter. I was not best at anything. I burnt food. My spear missed the prey. I don't like to remember that long ago. I remember that I wanted to go home. What does a yearling know of the difference between living five years or six, and living forever?"
"And sex?"
"What does a yearling know of sex? What does a Boy know of sex? He can only watch." Krayhayft gri