Sneezy noticed subconsciously that the schoolthing was hovering around Oniko much of the time, but he was too busy trying to prove to the satisfaction of his number-theory program that 53 was congruent to 1421 to the base 6 to pay much attention. It wasn’t that number theory was difficult for Sneezy. Far from it. Like all Heechee children, he had absorbed most of its principles at about the same time he learned to read. What made mathematics challenging for Sneezy was the silly human system of counting-to the base 10, imagine! With positional notation, so that if you got two digits in the wrong order, the number was hopelessly wrong!
Then, “Exercise time!” the schoolthing chirped cheerily, and Sneezy found out why the schoolthi~g was paying particular attention to Oniko Bakin.
All the individual teaching programs logged off. The restraining straps slid away from the small ones. The children stood up and stretched and, laughing and shoving, trooped out to the safe area out-side the schoolhall. Except Oniko. She remained behind.
Sneezy didn’t notice that at first, because he was busy, as all the children were busy, with the vigorous muscle-against-muscle tuggings and shovings and bendings and pressings that all of them had to perform twenty times a day. That was mandatory all over the Wheel, and not just for children. The light pull of the Watch Wheel was enervating. It didn’t encourage children to develop strong muscles, or adults to keep them. In any practical sense, as long as they stayed on the Wheel, that wouldn’t matter, because what did a human or Heechee need muscles for there?
But no one would stay on the Wheel forever, and once they got back to normal gravity, they would regret the flab accumulated on the Wheel.
Sneezy, being Heechee, was more methodical and purposeful in his exercising than most of the human students. He finished early and looked around. When he saw that Oniko wasn’t in the play pit, he peered into the schoolhall. There she was. The girl was strapped into a sort of jointed metal casing that followed the shape of her body. An exoskeleton! And the contraption was writhing and twisting and bending with the girl inside it.
“Oh,” said Sneezy, understanding at once. “You’re being acclimated to gravity.”
Oniko opened her eyes and looked at him levelly without answering. She was gasping for breath. Heechee are no better at reading human expressions than humans are with those of the Heechee, but Sneezy could see the strain lines on her face and the sweat on her brow.
“It’s good that you’re doing that,” he said. Then it occurred to him to be tactful. “Do you mind my being here?” he asked, because the girl was certainly being twisted and shaped into some rather extraordinary positions.
“No,” she panted.
Sneezy tarried indecisively. As he looked more closely he could see that it was not only exercise she was given. A stinger needle was in the vein of her arm, gently seeping some sort of fluid into her bloodstream. She saw his eye and managed to say, “I’m being recalcified. To make my bones stronger.”
“Yes, of course,” Sneezy said encouragingly. “I guess your habitat didn’t have much surface gravity? But this will help, I’m sure.” He thought for a moment, and then said in charity, “I guess you can’t do the real exercises yet, Oniko.”
She took a deep breath. “Not yet,” she said. “But I will!”
When the next half-holiday came around, Sneezy and Harold planned to visit the coconut grove. Oniko was just outside the schoolhail door as they left, and on impulse Sneezy said to her, “We’re going to get some coconuts. Do you want to come along?”
Harold grunted annoyance from behind him, but Sneezy paid no attention. Oniko pursed her lips, considering the invitation. Her poise and manner were very nearly adult as she said, “Yes, thank you very much. I wOuld enjoy that.”
“Sure,” Harold put in, “but what about lunch? I only brought enough for myself”
“I already have my lunch,” said the girl, patting her school bag, “since I was planning to explore the Wheel today, anyhow. It’s quite interesting, I think.”
Harold was indignant. “Interesting! Look, kid, it’s not just interesting. It’s the most important thing in the whole universe. It’s the only thing that keeps the whole human race safe!—Heechee too,” he added as an afterthought. “I mean, if we weren’t on guard every minute who knows what would happen?”
“Of course,” Oniko said politely. “I know that it is our task to monitor the kugelblitz. That is why we are all here, certainly.” The look she gave Harold was almost maternal. “Both my parents are watchers,” she said, with that self-deprecatory tone that announces great pride, “and my uncle Tashi as well. Nearly everyone where I come from is good at that sort of thing. Probably when I grow up I will be too.”
If there was one thing Harold couldn’t stand when he was condescending to someone, it was to be condescended to. He glowered. “Are we going to get some coconuts,” he demanded, “or are we going to stand around talking all day? Let’s get going!”
He turned, leading the way. His expression said that he personally had had no part in inviting this funny new human kid with the pod, and expected nothing good to come of it.
In a moment it seemed he was right.
The coconut grove was not far from the schoolhall in the curved geometry of the Wheel. In fact, it was directly “above” the school. There was a lift chain just a few dozen meters away, at the intersection of two main corridors, but in the light gravity of the Wheel active children seldom bothered with such things. Harold pushed a door open to reveal the vertical shaft with handholds just next to the schoolhall. He scuttled up out of sighi~ Sneezy nodded encouragingly to the girl she hesitated.
“I don’t think I can manage that yet,” she said.
“Naturally,” sneered Harold from above.
“No problem,” said Sneezy at once, embarrassed at his lack of thoughtfulness. “We’ll take the lift,” he called up the shaft, and didn’t wait to listen for Harold’s answer.
They got it, all the same, when they stepped carefully off the lift chain and found Harold waiting. “Oh, God,” he said, “if she can’t handle the ladders, how’s she going to climb a tree?”
“I’ll climb for her,” Sneezy said. “You go ahead.”
Ungraciously Harold turned away to pick the best tree for himself.
He went up, hands and feet, like a monkey. The coconut trees were a dozen meters tall before you got to the crown, but they were no trouble for an agile child to climb with only Wheel weight. Harold, vain of the muscles he religiously cultivated, had naturally chosen the tallest and richest-laden, and Oniko looked up at him with some fear.
“Just stand clear,” Sneezy encouraged, “in case he drops one.”
“I won’t damn well drop one!” snapped Harold from above, sawing away at one of the husks.
“It probably wouldn’t hurt even if he did,” said Sneezy, “but all the same—”
“All the same you think I’ll break,” said Oniko with dignity. “Don’t worry about me. Climb a tree. I’ll watch.”
Sneezy glanced around and chose a shorter tree with fewer fruits, but, he thought, larger ones. “We’re only allowed two each,” he explained, “or else the guardthing will report us. I’ll be right back.”
And he swarmed up his tree even faster than Harold and made his choice among the triangular green fruits. He carefully tossed three good ones to the ground a few meters away from Oniko, and when he was down again she was studying them in surprise. “But these aren’t coconuts!” she exclaimed. “I’ve seen pictures of coconuts. They’re brown and hairy and hard.”
“Those are inside the green stuff,” Sneezy explained. “Take that big one. Tap it with your knuckles to make sure it’s ripe—”