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seeded with sapients. Part of the riddle of his own origin had been answered. "But should Hiim
survive-"
"We must go there and verify this. He might have survived the fall but be injured, then roll victim to a
predator. Then we would seed the empty valley and depart. It is the HydrO way."
Heem recognized the validity of her point, but remained reluctant. "This mountain is high and steep,
too difficult for us to cross."
"We could harness a flatfloater, as you and your siblings did."
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"Half of us died in the effort-and another died on the mountain."
"Yes, it is dangerous. But we must do it."
She was correct; HydrO instinct required this effort. Still, he balked. "No. I will not do it."
Genuinely perplexed, she sprayed her gentle query, tinged with her sex appeal. For the first time,
Heem appreciated the subtle power the female could exert. He felt cruel and guilty, opposing her.
"Why not, Heem? Are you ill, or of suspect stock?"
"I am not physically ill," he jetted, working his rationale out as much for himself as for her. "I have no
reason to question my stock; my siblings perished from external causes, not from any internal
malaise. But I have experienced the horrors of growing up among peers. Of two hundred or more, I
alone remain. All the others fell horribly to predators or accidents-because there was no adult sapient
to care for them. I have always hated the power that placed us in that situation, and now I cannot do
the same thing to my own offspring."
"But it is the HydrO way!" she jetted back, working out her own rationale. "Any couple who
discovers a suitable and vacant place must repopulate-"
"No!" he needled so sharply that she made a little spray of pain. "I will not contribute to such an
infernal system!"
"It is-it is natural selection. You survived in the valley of Highfalls because you were-were the fittest
in the region," she insisted, her jets overlapping each other. "And I-I am among the fittest also, for I
am among the few remaining sisters of Morningmist."
"I survived because I was lucky. I have no special merit." Yet he remembered occasions when he had
avoided some threat that others had fallen prey to, because he had been more intelligent. And his
needles had always been among the most accurate. Luck could not account for all of it. "And I refuse
to believe that it has to be this way-the ignorant generating new litters of the helpless, never staying to
help, to teach-" He damped his jet, thinking of another aspect. "Why could we not remain in
Highfalls, to instruct-"
"That is not the HydrO way!" she sprayed, shocked.
So it was an impasse. "We will jet on this another time," she jetted, meaning that she would be trying
again to change his mind. They settled down to sleep, irreconciled.
Heem woke to the alarm of the ship. A quick savoring of the composite flavor assured him that he
was on course. His course. The ship, naturally, assumed he was unintentionally drifting into danger.
"H-Sixty-six, are you in control?" It was H-46 on the taste net. Swoon of Sweetswamp, the female he
had helped get her ship. The one with sex-appeal flavor like no one since Moon of Morningmist. He
regretted he would never have occasion to roll Swoon up on her offer of further cooperation; it would
almost certainly have been fun.
"I am in control, H-forty-six," he responded. It was nice of her to express concern for him. She knew
his identity because of his prior antics in the column; she would have tasted all the intership signals.
But they were competitors now, and she had turned out to be a superlative pilot. "Congratulations on
advancing into the first fifty. You made the cut; I did not. I wish you further success."
"Just don't drift too far toward the Hole before the Competition Authority rescues you," Swoon jetted.
"We may yet meet again, after this is over."
It was a strongly flavored reminder. She remained grateful. But Heem did not answer, for he knew he
would never be able to indulge himself of that offer.
The ship was angling toward the Hole. The turnover point of the race was at the closest buoyed
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approach to the primary pair, since the destination planet was at the moment across the System from
Impasse. Acceleration had been aided by the fall toward the primary, and deceleration would be aided
by the climb away from it. But it was not safe to pass too close, for within a certain radius the well of
the Hole became total: not even radiation could escape.
Now, suddenly, the Hole seemed much more powerfully flavored. Growingly huge yet tasteless, it
loomed upon the ship: the region of No Return. Though Heem's ship was now in free-fall, it was
accelerating-toward the abyss.
The alien transferee within him took one translated look and retreated in numb horror to her own
nightmare. Heem found himself drawn into it, as it were into an internal Hole.
Cloning was done to safeguard the ancient and dwindling lineages of the aristocracy of System [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]