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51After the Ball Is Over
"No point in sitting here," Re
"Yeah." Rod led the way to the Commission's office suite in the Palace. Sally followed silently.
"Kelley, I think you'd better bring a round of thinks," Rod said when they were seated at the conference table. "Make mine a double."
"Aye aye, my lord." Kelley gave Rod a puzzled look. Was Lady Sally giving him problems already? And them not even married yet?
"Twenty-five years!" Sally exploded. There was bitter anger in her voice. She said it again, this time to Chaplain Hardy. "Twenty-five years?" She waited for him to explain a universe in which there was so much injustice.
"Maybe it's the price they pay for better than human intelligence," Re
"There are compensations," Hardy said thoughtfully. "Their intelligence. And their love of life. They talk so fast, they probably think fast as well. I expect that Modes pack a lot into their few years."
There was more silence. Kelley returned with a tray. He set down the glasses and left, his face screwed into puzzled disapproval.
Re
Kevin lifted his glass. "Here's to the wake."
No one responded. Rod left his drink untouched. A man could live a good, useful life in a quarter of a century, he thought. Didn't people live about that long in preatomic days? But it couldn't be complete. I'm twenty-five now, and I haven't raised a family, or lived with a woman I love, or even begun my career in politics. He watched Sally rise and pace the floor What does she think she's doing? Is she going to solve that problem for them? If they can't, how could we?
"This isn't getting us anywhere," Re
They all looked at him. Sally stopped her pacing and took her seat again. "There were four pups when we got back to Mote Prime," she said. "Weren't there?"
"Indeed," Hardy said. He swirled brandy in his glass. "That is rather a high birth rate."
"But they've so little time," Sally protested.
"One would be a high birth rate in that ship. On that mission." Re
"I see your point," said David Hardy. "But I'll want to think about it. Perhaps-"
He was interrupted by fists slamming on the table. Two fists. Sally's "God's teeth!" She seized the stylus and scribbled symbols on the face of her computer. It hummed and flashed. "We were waiting for the transfer ship. I know I didn't misunderstand. I couldn't have."
Hardy looked puzzlement at Sally. Re
The computer hummed again. Sally nodded and keyed in instructions. A screen on the back wall lit to show Sally Fowler, eight months younger, talking to a brown-and-white alien. The voices were eerily identical.
Motie: But you marry to raise children. Who raises children born without marriage?
Sally: There are charities.
Motie: I take it you've never-
Sally: No, of course not.
The living Sally was almost blushing, but her face remained grim.
Motie: How not? I don't mean why not, I mean how?
Sally: Well-you know that men and women have to have sexual relations to make a baby, the same as you-
I've examined you pretty thoroughly...-
"Perhaps not thoroughly enough," Hardy commented.
"Apparently not," Sally said. "Shah."
Motie: Pills? How do they work? Hormones?
Sally: That's right.
Motie: But a proper woman doesn't use them.
Sally: No.
Motie: When will you get married?
Sally: When I find the right man... I may have found him already.
Someone was chuckling. Sally looked around, to see Rod looking beatifically unconcerned, Hardy smiling gently, and Re
Motie: Then why don't you many him?
Sally: I don't want to jump into anything. "Marry in haste, repent at leisure." I can get married any time. Well, any time within the next five years. I'll be something of a spinster if I'm not married by then.
Motie: Spinster?
Sally: People would think it odd. What if a Motie doesn't want children? Motie: We don't have sexual relations
There were various clunks, and the screen went blank
"The literal truth," she mused "We don't have sexual relations." They don t either, but not by choice"
"Really?" David Hardy sounded puzzled "The statement in context with the question is highly misleading..."
"She didn't want to talk about it any more," Sally insisted. "And no wonder. I just misunderstood, that's all."
"I never misunderstood my Motie," Re
"Look. Let's drop it."-
"The day we went down to- Mote Prime, You'd known each other for months," Re
"If I understand you properly, the same as you."
"Just what are you hinting at, Mr. Re
"I'm not hinting it, Sally," Re
"Nonsense. She was embarrassed-"
Hardy shook his head slightly. It was a tiny motion, but it stopped Sally. She looked at the priest. "I think," David said, "I can recall only one occasion when a Motie was embarrassed. It was at the Museum. And all of them acted the same way there-nothing like your Fyunch(click) did just now, Sally. I'm afraid it's very probable that Kevin is right."
"And for what reason?" Sally insisted. "Just why would my-almost my sister-why would she lie to me? About that?"
There was silence. Sally nodded in satisfaction. She couldn't snap at Chaplain Hardy; not - that she had that much respect for his office, but for him, Re
"Yah. Sure." Re
They left the glittering ballroom as soon as they could. Behind them a costumed orchestra played waltzes; while the Moties were introduced to a seemingly endless line. There were provincial barons, Parliament leaders, traders, people with friends in the protocol office, and assorted party crashers. Everyone wanted to see the Modes.
Rod took Sally's hand as they walked through deserted Palace corridors toward their quarters. An ancient waltz faded hollowly behind them.
"They've so little time to live, and we're wasting it with-that." Sally muttered. "Rod, it's not fair!"
"Part of their mission, sweetheart. What good would it do them to agree with us if we can't hold the baronage? Even with the Throne behind us we're safer playing the political game. And so are they."
"I suppose." She stopped him and leaned against his shoulder. The Hooded Man was fully risen, black against the stars, watching them through the stone arches. A fountain splashed in the courtyard below. They stood that way in the deserted corridor for a long time.
"I do love you," she whispered. "How can you put up with me?"
"That's pretty easy." He bent down to kiss her, desisted when there was no response.