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curiously around the visitors. They had daily chores of their own to
attend to.
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Prentice was working next to a fallen log when Millie
Carnavon appeared on the horizon, cresting the low bluff that
separated the village from the shore.
 Wondered where you d got to. He looked up from his recorder. Its
macro attachment was in place.
 I ve been down on the beach. She exhibited a handful of shells, all
beautiful, intricate of design, and startlingly transparent.
 Be interesting to see if these are composed of the usual calcium minus
tinting impurities or if they re simply pure silicon-based.
She gestured back the way she d come.  There are middens all around
the high-water line, as well as signs of recent cooking. The males have
several large, flat-topped rocks they fish from. I
watched them for quite a while. Spears and small nets. Pocketing the shells,
she extracted what looked like a pearlized slipper from her pack.
 Isn t this one gorgeous? One of the females showed me how they scour the
inside with scrapers and then polish the lining and exterior. They use them as
utensils to hold their food but not as ornaments. Curious.
 Looks like they have plenty to eat. Prentice made an adjustment to
his recorder.
Simna looked up curiously from where he and Lejardin were working nearby.
 Looks like Millie s found some pretties. Can t be sure they re mollusks yet,
though.
 What, no ready answers? she chided him.
He gave her that penetrating stare.  I ve told you before, Favrile;
the questions interest me more than the answers. Answers don t require near as
much brainpower to postulate. Just adequate memory. He tapped the sides of
his head and grinned cavalierly.
 Sometimes I m afraid I ll run out of room before I die.
 Just concentrate on the language, Jack, so we can talk to these
people. You should like that. You can spend most of your time formulating
questions and leave all the answers to them.
His reply was in dead earnest.  Yes, that would be best. He sighed.  I ll
think I have a name for something, and then Boutu or
Jesh ku or one of the others will call it something else. So I have to sort as
well as learn. Strange to find a culture whose vocabulary causes more
trouble than its grammar.
 You re doing fine, and you ll continue to do fine. I have
confidence in you.
He looked up sharply.  Nice of you to say so.
She turned away.  Don t let your head get any more swelled than it already
is.
With the village as a forward base they were able to fan out into the
surrounding forest; exploring dense woods, creeks, shore, and beach without
having to watch one another s backs. As
Carnavon succinctly put it,  The natives may still be capable of
treachery, but if they were going to try anything I think they d have done so
while we were sleeping. We can trust them and keep an eye on them at the
same time. Prentice was against relaxing their guard and virtually
splitting up, but seeing how the wind was blowing he bent with it.
They even had time to relax on the beach, though when
O Sandringham and Lejardin chose to do so it put a distinct crimp in the work
ethic of their associates. It was a sign of how at ease
they had become not only with their hosts the Pendju but with
Xica itself. Its threats were implied rather than pending, its
hostilities inwardly aimed. As visitors, they began to consider
themselves outside the daily ebb and flow of the ecosystem. Not recognizing
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them, the herbivores did not see them as a threat, and the predators did not
recognize them as prey. They were noticed but ignored.
The ocean was another matter. The Pendju knew nothing of swimming and were
first frightened and then astonished when several of their visitors
put on a demonstration. It took all of
Simna s newly acquired linguistic powers to persuade them that the humans were
neither amphibious nor suicidal. Thus assured, they observed their visitors
watery frolics with delight. There was scruba gear on board the
James Cook for self-contained recycled underwater breathing, but it awaited
another return visit to the ship to collect. Given their initial reaction
to a simple swimming demonstration, Prentice couldn t help wondering how
the Pendju would respond when scruba-equipped visitors disappeared
underwater and didn t immediately come up for air.
Cedric Carnavon could barely restrain himself. Quick sketches of fish
had produced only looks of consternation among the Pendju he d shown them to,
but rough drawings of octopi and squid caused them to babble excitedly. Dried
tentacular bodies of great intricacy were thereupon drawn from village
stores and proudly displayed to the visitors.
 Maybe there are no bony fishes or their analogs in the oceans of Xica,
Carnavon deposed.  It seems that the seas here may be dominated by
invertebrates. Interesting, as well as peculiar.
O Sandringham challenged him immediately.  If that s true, then how do you
explain the progress of vertebrate evolution on land?
 We don t know if that s how life here has proceeded. We ve seen and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]