“What’s… urk, what’s a ‘wringer’? Never mind, I don’t want any explanations of your anachronisms. Look at you! You’re proud of making me feel like a bar of steel that’s been melted and bent out of shape!”
“Yup.”
Jacob didn’t succeed at suppressing a grin. “Shut up and respect your elders. How much time do we have, anyway?”
Helens glanced at her ring. “About two minutes. Damned awkward timeto have a meeting. You were just starting to get interesting. Who the hell called it at such an inconvenient moment?”
“You did.”
“Ah, yes. So I did. Next time I’ll give you at least a half hour, and we’ll investigate matters in more detail.”
Jacob nodded uncertainly. It was hard to tell, sometimes, at what level this fem was kidding.
Before she unlatched the door, Helene soberly leaned up and kissed him.
“Thank you, Jacob.”
He caressed the side of her face with his left hand. She pressed against it briefly. There was nothing to say when he brought the hand away.
Helene opened the door and looked out. There was no one in sight but the pilot. Everyone else had probably gathered for the second meeting at the refreshment center.
“Let’s go,” she said. “I could eat a horse!”
Jacob shuddered. If he was going to get to know Helene better, he’d better be prepared for a lot of exercise for his imagination. A horse indeed!
Still, he dropped a little less than a foot back as they walked, so he could watch Helene move. It was so distracting that he didn’t notice when a spinning torus swung past the ship, its sides emblazoned with starbursts and surrounded by a halo as white and bright as the down on the breast of a dove.
24. SPONTANEOUS EMISSION
Culla was just pulling a liquitube out of Fagin’s foliage when they returned. One arm was enmeshed in the Kanten’s leafy branches. The Pring held another liquitube in his other hand.
“Welcome back,” Fagin fluted. “Pring Culla was just assisting me with my dietary supplement. I am afraid that in doing so he has neglected his own.”
“No problem, shir,” Culla said. He slowly pulled the tube backward.
Jacob came up behind the Pring to watch. This was a chance to learn more about Fagin’s workings. The Kan-ten once told him that his species had no modesty taboo, so surely he wouldn’t mind if Jacob sighted along Culla’s arm to see what sort of orifice the semi-vegetable alien used.
He was bent over thus when suddenly Culla jerked back, pulling the liquitube free. His elbow collided painfully with the ridge above Jacob’s eye, sending him backwards on his rump.
Culla chattered loudly. The liquitubes dropped from the hands that fell limply to his sides. Helene had trouble choking back a fit of laughter. Jacob hurried to his feet. His “I’ll-get-even-someday” grimace at Helene only made her cough more loudly.
“Forget it, Culla,” he said. “No damage done. It was my fault. I have a spare eye anyway.” He resisted the urge to rub the spot where it hurt.
Culla looked down at him with shining eyes. The chattering subsided. -
“You are mosht gracioush, Friend-Jacob,” he said at last. “In a proper client-elder shituation I wash at fault for careleshnesh. I thank you for forgiving me.”
“Tut tut, my friend.” Jacob waved it aside. Actually he could feel the beginnings of a nasty bump forming. Still, it would be worthwhile changing the subject to save Culla further embarrassment.
“Speaking of spare eyes, I read that your species, and most of those on Pring, had only one eye before the Pila arrived and started their genetic program.”
“Yesh, Jacob. The Pila gave ush two eyesh for esthetic purposhesh. In the galaxy mosht bipedsh are binocular. They did not want ush… teashed by the other young racesh.”
Jacob frowned. There was something… he knew Mr. Hyde already had it but was holding back, still in his peevish mood.
Damnit, it’s my unconscious!
No use. Oh well.
“But Culla, I also read that your species were arboreal… even brachiating, if I remember right…”
“What’s that mean?” Donaldson whispered to deSilva. “It means they used to swing from tree limbs,” she answered. “Now hush!”
“…But if they had only one eye how did your ancestors have good enough depth perception to keep from missing when they reached for the next branch?”
Before Jacob even finished his sentence he felt jubilation, That had been the question Mr. Hyde was holding back! So the little devil didn’t have a complete lock on unconscious insight! Helene was doing him good already. He hardly cared what Culla’s answer was.
“I thought you knew. Friend-Jacob. I overheard Commandant deShilva explaining during our firsht dive that I have different receiversh than you do. My eyesh can detect phase ash well ash inteashity.”
“Yes.” Jacob was starting to have fun now. He’d have to keep his eyes on Fagin. The old Kanten would warn him if he was getting into an area Culla found touchy.
“Yes, but sunlight, particularly in a forest, would have to be totally incoherent… random in phase. Now a dolphin uses a system like yours in her sonar, keeping the phase and all. But she provides her own coherent phase field by letting out well-timed squeaks into her surroundings.”
Jacob stepped back, enjoying a dramatic pause. His foot fell on one of the liquitubes Culla had dropped. Absently he picked it up.
“So if all your ancestors’ eyes did was retain the phase, the whole thing still wouldn’t work without having a source of coherent light in your environment.” Jacob got excited. “Natural lasers? Do your forests have some natural source of laser light?”
“By George that would be interesting!” Donaldson commented.
Culla nodded. “Yesh, Jacob. We call them the…” his mashies came together in a complicated rhythm “…plants. It’sh incredible that you dedushed their exishtence from sho few cluesh. You are to be congratulated. I will show you picturesh of one when we get back.”
Jacob caught a glimpse of Helene, smiling at him, possessively. (Deep inside his head he felt a distant rumbling. He ignored it.) “Yes, I’d like to see it, Culla.”
The liquitube was sticky in his hand. There was a smell in the air, like new mown hay.
“Here, Culla.” He held out the liquitube. “I think you dropped this.” Then his arm froze. He stared at the tube for a moment then broke out laughing.
“Millie, come here!” he shouted. “Look at this!” He held out the tube to Dr. Martine and pointed to the label.
“3-(alpha-Acetonylbenzyl) — 4-hydroxycoumarin al-kalide mix?” She looked uncertain for a moment then her jaw dropped. “Why, that’s Warfarin! So it’s one of Culla’s dietary supplements! Well then how the hell did a sample get into Dwayne’s pharmacopoeia?”
Jacob smiled ruefully, “I’m afraid that misunderstanding was all my fault. I absentmindedly picked up a sample of one of Culla’s beverage mix tablets back aboard the Bradbury. I was so sleepy then that I forgot about it. It must have gone into the same pocket where I later stashed Dr. Kepler’s samples. They all went together to Dr. Laird’s lab.
“It was just a wild coincidence that one of Culla’s nutrient supplements happened to be identical with an old terrestrial poison, but boy did it have me going in circles! I was thinking Bubbacub slipped it to Kepler to make him unstable, but I was never very happy with that theory.” He shrugged.
“Well I, for one, am relieved the whole thing is solved!” Martine laughed. “I didn’t like what people were thinking about me!”
It was a minor discovery. But somehow clearing up one small, nagging mystery had transformed the mood of those present. They talked animatedly.