Hrral returned Reeve's carefully enunciated greeting with grave courtesy.
Hrral is the elder of our largest settlement, Hrrestan explained. I sent messages requesting him to visit us at his earliest convenience. Hrrto lives not far from Hrral and accompanied him.
Reeve felt his expression of welcome must be frozen on his face from the shock of Hrrestan's words. Why had it not occurred to anyone before that there would be more such settlements on Doona? It should have been obvious that Hrrestan's village could not be an isolated instance of humanoid life. A trained alienist would have undoubtedly checked that out immediately. Hell, his training had been in planetary exploitation, not diplomatic relations. Codep was damned lucky he'd taken up linguistics at all. At least some attempt had been made at establishing communication. He was a settler, damn it, up against a situation nowhere mentioned in fifteen years of extensive training.
It is our way, Hrrestan continued smoothly, to live in small groups so that our numbers are not a burden on game and other resources.
The horror of his home Sector's warren-like levels was superimposed for an instant over the Hrruban village and sent an additional internal shock through Reeve. He mumbled something about their wisdom.
There has been mention made within my hearing of your sky-traveling ships, Hrrestan continued. The young Hrrula says your mates and young will soon be joined with you. Hrral, and here Hrrestan made a curious bow to the elder, great as is his learning and long as is his life has never seen such a wonder as a ship that travels in the sky.
Hrral seemed afflicted with a cough and his tail tip twitched.
This is truly said to you by Hrrestan, Hrral, Reeve replied earnestly but slowly. For how else could men travel from one world to another? This is how we have come here.
Reeve caught a glimpse of Hrrula's jaw dropped in silent amusement and wondered frantically what word he had mispronounced.
It would be our great pleasure, Reeve began to see what Hrrestan was leading up to, if the noble Hrral would remain as our guest until the sky ship comes?
Hrral and Hrrestan exchanged glances and Reeve wondered if he had exceeded his authority in making the invitation. He looked around for Hu Shih. The courtesy and self-effacing manners of the Hrrubans were considerably more in the metropologist's manner than Reeve's. Sometimes Ken felt that he compared unfavorably with an untrained Hrruban cub with his habit of blurting out what he thought instead of couching it in the properly elegant phrases.
How the hell did anyone find out anything from Hrrubans, he'd like to know, when you had to lead up to what you wanted to say from the opposite direction? Sure, they should be finding out all kinds of facts about burial techniques ,child education, status symbols, tribal government, so that Alreldep would have what it needed. But the formal Hrruban language did not adapt itself to blunt inquiries. The inquirer and Reeve was not alone in this frustration was likely to find himself involved in a pronunciation lesson. So often in his dealings with Hrrula, Reeve would arrive at the opening he needed to insert a leading question, only to find himself involved in a grammar lesson. By the time he had been lectured on the exceptions to that particular rule, he had forgotten his question. It never seemed intentional at that time but, in retrospect, Reeve wasn't so sure that the Hrrubans hadn't discovered an exceptionally deft evasive trick.
Expressing surprised pleasure at the invitation, Hrral argued amiably with Hrrestan about the great inconvenience to which he would put his host. By the time he had reassured Hrral, Reeve found that he was also committed to conducting Hrral around the colonists' installation.
They were about to step into the mess hall when both Hrrubans stopped suddenly, throwing their heads up to the sky, their ears twitching rapidly. Confused, Reeve scanned the sky to see what could have attracted their attention. Hrrula was also standing stock-still, head skyward.
The eyes of the Hrruban are farseeing, Ken remarked politely. May I know what they see in the sky?
Hrrestan, his ears still working, his pupils adjusting his vision to normal range, widened his mouth in the Hrruban version of a smile.
The sky ship is descending. Observe the sparkling.
Ken peered over the velvety shoulder, glanced along the angle indicated and, sure enough, a metallic flash appeared in the sky at the tip of the pointing claw. Faintly now, Ken could hear the boom of retroblasts as the ship braked.
It took all Reeve's self-control to keep from reacting in the idiot way of the others. Someone had sense enough to set the air whistle blowing in report-in sequence. Hu Shih emerged excitedly from the mess hall, nearly treading on Hrral's tail in his haste. Reeve managed to make the proper introductions as the metropologist bowed his apologies. By the time Hu Shih realized that Hrral came from a distant village, the glint of sun on metal was constant. The speck that was the ship enlarged noticeably with each passing second.
We will not intrude on the reunion of families so long separated, Hrral demurred, politely, edging away.
He seemed in an all-fired hurry to get away suddenly, Reeve thought, when a moment ago he was so anxious to stay. Maybe Hrruban ears couldn't take the noise of descent. Every Hrruban ear was flat against the skull.
It is a joyous occasion we would share with our new friends, Hu Shih replied graciously.
Stay. There is no need to leave, Hrrestan remarked quickly to Hrral. A great feast has been planned by our women to welcome their women.
Such thoughtfulness will be treasured memory, Hu Shih answered.
Ramasan came tearing around the corner of the building.
Shih, there are oh pardon, he added in stumbling Hrruban. He plucked at the metropologist's sleeve to draw him to one side. Those females are digging a pit and there are I don't know how many deer carcasses in my kitchen and I can't understand . . .
Evidently their women wish to help prepare the welcoming feast, Reeve told him.
"Oh oh," Ramasan murmured, "there'll be so much to be done and I simply don't know enough Hrruban " but he dashed off before Hu Shih or Ken could reassure him.
Omigod, thought Ken with a sudden panic. All these cats and no one on board that ship knows about it!
Chapter X. PROBLEM CHILD
THE GIANT squatty transport ship had made planetfall, the event punctuated by the steam rising from the burn-off. The men, moving with clumsy haste, sprayed down the chemical neutralizer, then pumped water on the flat burned ground to hasten cooling. The sooner that was accomplished, the sooner their women would disembark. Each man had known that there was no way the ship could be contacted by Codep and diverted once the existence of the natives was known. Yet everyone had been haunted by the fear that somehow they might be denied even a brief reunion with their families.
The ship was a silver exclamation point to their relief and welcome. As the water stopped boiling away, the steam cleared and the upper lock slid open, a black eye on the silver skin. Two men emerged, scrambling agilely down the passenger steplift. With great leaps they cleared the burn-off area, looking around. Hu Shih hastily plowed through the men who crowded the burn-off edge, trying to wave to the women who now filled the open lock.
The captain, swarthy-faced and possessing a bizarre sprouting of facial hair, frowned at the Hrrubans before he saluted Hu Shih.
He started to speak but could not make himself heard above the babble caused by the men shouting to their wives aloft.
Belay it, the captain bellowed with lungs developed communicating across blast-off bedlam. Y'can yell yerselves sick, but until I turn my papers over to your chief here, no one steps off the ship or on it. He glared impersonally at everyone before continuing in a milder tone, and I'll not flip a frame forward in the midst of riot.