The Mote In God's Eye

There was something else Re

"Physician. Emm Dee," Re

"Yah. And the Whites?"

"Givers of orders. There was one aboard ship, as I'm sure you know."

"Yah, we guessed that." The Tsar had, anyway. What else was he right about?

"What do you think of our architecture?"

"Ugly. Industrial hideous," said Re

"Come, I will conceal nothing from you. We do, but it doesn't resemble yours. And I still don't know what you people see in arches and pillars-"

"Freudian symbolism," Re

"That's what Horvath's Motie keeps saying, but I've never heard a coherent explanation," Re

The limousines were radically different from the two-seaters that zipped past them. No two of the two-seaters were alike either-the Moties did not seem to have discovered the advantages of standardization. But all the other vehicles they had seen were tiny, like a pair of motorcycles, while the humans rode in low-slung stream- lined vehicles with soft curves bright with polish.

"They're beautiful," said Sally. "Did you design them just for us?"

"Yes," her Motie replied. "Did we guess well?"

"Perfectly. We're most flattered," Sally said. "You must have put considerable expense into... this..." She trailed off. Re

There had been castles like this in the Tyrolean Alps of Earth. They were still there, never bombed, but Re

"What is that place?" Re

Sally's Motie answered. "You will stay there. It is pressurized and self-enclosed, with a garage and cars for your convenience."

Horace Bury spoke into the admiring silence. "You are most impressive hosts."

From the first they called it the Castle. Beyond question it had been designed and built entirely for them. It was large enough for perhaps thirty people. Its beauty and luxury were in the tradition of Sparta-with a few jarring notes.

Whitbread, Staley, Sally, Drs. Hardy and Horvath-they knew their ma

But Re

He looked about the apartment assigned him. Double bed, dresser, large closet, a couch and coffee table, all vaguely reminiscent of the travelogues he had shown the Moties. It was five times the size of his cabin aboard MacArthur.

"Elbow room," he said with great satisfaction. He sniffed. There was no smell at all. "You do a great job of filtering the planet's air."

"Thanks. As for the elbow room-" Re

The picture window ran from floor to ceiling, wall to wall. The city towered over him; most of the buildings in view were taller than the Castle. Re

There was an alcove near the head of his bed. He looked into it. It held a dresser and two odd-looking pieces of furniture that Re

He asked, "Two?"

"We will be assigned a Brown."

"I'm going to teach you a new word. It's called ‘privacy.' It refers to the human need-"

"We know about privacy." The Motie did a double take. "You aren't suggesting it should apply between a man and his Fyunch(click)!"

Re

"But ... but... Re

"Do I?"

"No. Dammit. All right, Re

"Yah. I might add that the rest probably feel the same way, whether they say so or not."

The bed, the couch, the table showed none of the familiar Motie i

"I've got to try that bathtub," said Re

"Let me know what you think. We saw some pictures of bathtubs in your travelogues, but they looked ridiculous, given your anatomy."

"Right. Nobody's ever designed a decent bathtub. There weren't any toilets in those pictures, were there?"

"Oddly enough, there weren't."

"Mmm." Re

"Quite a lot. Too much for space craft."

"Well, we'll see what we can do."

"Oh, and you'd better hang another door between the bathroom and the living room."

"More privacy?"

"Yah."

Di

"We can use this as a trade item," said Bury. "We would rather ship the seeds, not the melon itself. Is it hard to grow?"

"Not at all, but it requires cultivation," said Bury's Motie. "We'll give you the opportunity to test the soil. Have you found ether things that might be worth trading?"

Bury frowned, and looked down at his plate. Nobody had remarked on those plates...they were gold: plates, silverware, even the wine goblets, though they were shaped like fine crystal. Yet they couldn't be gold, because they didn't conduct heat; and they were simple copies of the plastic free-fall utensils aboard MacArthur's cutter, even to the trademarks stamped on the edges.

Everyone was waiting for his answer. Trade possibilities would profoundly affect the relationship between Mote and Empire. "On our route to the Castle I looked for signs of luxuries among you. I saw none but those designed specifically for human beings. Perhaps I did not recognize them."

"I know the word, but we deal very little in luxuries. We-I speak for the givers of orders, of course-we put more emphasis on power, territory, the maintenance of a household and a dynasty. We concern ourselves with providing a proper station in life for our children."