Divergence

“It is finished,” Speaker-Between said from behind them. “I will receive confirmation when they reach their destination. And now — for you it begins. You must continue, human and Cecropian, until the selection process is complete.”

“Sure thing. You’re just go

“I am. I see no need for my presence. I will check periodically to ascertain the situation, just as I did when your group expelled the Zardalu.”

Speaker-Between was sinking steadily into the floor. The tail and lower part of his body had already vanished.

“Hold on a minute.” Nenda reached out to grab the flowerlike head. “Suppose that we want to contact you?”

“Until one of you triumphs over the other, there can be no reason for me to talk to you. A warning: Do not seek to escape using the transportation system. You will not be accepted by it. In case of need, however, I will tell you a way to reach me. Activate one of the stasis tanks. That fact will be drawn to my attention…” The stem was sinking, until only the head itself was left. It nodded, at floor level. “This is farewell — to one of you. I do not expect to see both of you again.”

Speaker-Between disappeared. Atvar H’sial and Louis Nenda stared at each other for a full minute.

“Has he gone?” The pheromonal message diffused across to Nenda.

“I think so. Give it a few more seconds, though.” And then, when another half minute had passed, he said, “We oughta start right now, but we haven’t had a chance to talk for a while. What do you think?”

“I think that something new and unprecedented has happened to the iconoclastic Louis Nenda.” The pheromones were full of mockery. “I did not understand your spoken interaction with the female, but I could monitor your body chemistry. There was emotion there — and genuine sentiment. A grave weakness, and one that may prove your undoing.”

“No way.” Nenda snorted “You were reading me wrong, dead wrong. It’s an old human saying: Always leave ’em hot, someday it may pay off. That’s all I was doing.”

“I was not reading you wrong, Louis Nenda. and I remain unpersuaded.”

“Hey, you didn’t hear her. She was all ready to change her mind and stay — I could see it in her eyes. I couldn’t have that, her stickin’ around and poking her nose in. I had to make her realize how noble I was, see, remainin’ here like this, because then she couldn’t stay, too, without making me look less like Mr. Wonderful. Anyway I don’t want to talk about that. Let’s drop it an’ get right to the real stuff.”

“One moment more. I may accept that you were not deceiving me concerning your feelings for the woman, Darya Lang — accept it someday, if not yet. But I know you were seeking to deceive me, and everyone else, on another matter.”

“Deceive you? What are you talkin’ about?”

“Please, Louis. I am not a larval form, or a human i

“Hey, I was goin’ to show you anyway, soon as the rest was gone. You don’t think I’d try an’ keep it from you, do you? We both know that wouldn’t work for more than a minute.”

“I knew that you could not succeed in doing so. It is good to hear that you did not intend to try.” Atvar H’sial turned the yellow trumpets of her hearing organs to Nenda as he crouched down to open the little satchel that accompanied him everywhere.

After a few moments a pale-apricot head peeped out.

Atvar H’sial released the chemical equivalent of a sigh. “Louis Nenda, I knew of this, minutes after the last adult Zardalu vanished into the vortex. Where did you get it?”

“Little bugger bit me, when I was hiding inside Holder.” Nenda peered into the satchel, careful to keep clear of the young Zardalu’s questing beak. “Greedy little devil, that’s for sure — eaten every last scrap of food I stuck in there.”

“But you did not have to take and hide it. What act of folly is this, to keep in your possession a member of the spiral arm’s most dangerous life-form? It can be of no use to you in the struggle here.”

“Well, you don’t seem too upset. Look at it this way. If the other Zardalu are all alive, then one more won’t make a bit of difference. An’ if the others are all dead, one surviving specimen would be absolutely priceless to anybody who got back home. Think of it, At.”

“I did think of it — long since.” The Cecropian reached out a forelimb and picked up the infant Zardalu. It wriggled furiously in her grasp. “And I agreed with you; otherwise I would have made my own thoughts known.” She watched the writhing orange form. “It is alive, and obviously healthy. Apparently the Zardalu idea that their young need meat in order to thrive has no validity.”

“Or maybe with no meat they grown up less vicious. That’d be nice. So you agree — I should keep it?”

“At least for a while.” Atvar H’sial placed the little Zardalu down on the ground, close to Nenda’s feet. “But let me give you a solemn warning. The Zardalu were the galaxy’s most feared species. There must have been good reason for that, and our small victory over a few bewildered and desperate specimens does nothing to gainsay it. Remember, in a couple of years this infant will be big enough to tear you apart and eat you.”

“Mebbe. I’m not worried. Hell, if I can’t control a baby, I oughta be ashamed of myself.”

“It will not remain a baby. And perhaps you will be ashamed of yourself — if you live so long. But now…” Atvar H’sial crouched close to Louis Nenda. Her emotional intensity had heightened, in subtle waves of chemicals. “Now the time for conversation has ended, and the time for action is here. There is a battle to be fought. Are you ready to put your new plaything to one side and begin the conflict?”

CHAPTER 28

“I must reiterate to you the great importance of this matter.” The speaker paused, and his eyes glared out of the screen. “And although it pains me to add this, I must remind you of your failure to honor your commitment and promises.”

Darya Lang wriggled in her wicker chair and stared at Professor Merada’s recorded image with a mixture of disbelief and irritation. The video signal had been sent skipping across the Bose Communications Network, bearing its MOST URGENT — IMMEDIATE ACTION insignia and her full name and title. Within minutes of her final descent from Midway Station and her arrival at the surface of Opal, the video in her room had been flashing for attention.

“Forty standard days,” the speaker went on. “The fifth edition of the Universal Artifact Catalog is due for final compilation in just forty standard days! It ca

Darya turned off the sound.

Hans Rebka had entered the room as the words personal promise were spoken. He was carrying a sheaf of messages. He shook his head, sighed, and dropped into a chair at Darya’s side.

“Half an hour we’ve been back on Opal,” he said, “and look at these. Dozens of ’em. From Shipping Control: ‘Please explain the failure of the Zardalu Communion ship, the Have-It-All, to file a flight plan before leaving the Dobelle system.’ From Port Authority: ‘Define current location and status of the freighter Incomparable.’ From Transient Control and Emigration: ‘Provide the present location of the Cecropian, Atvar H’sial’ — hell, I just wish I could provide that.”