CHARLOTTE: <indicating suspicion> You are Top Clan Eight-Six.
ALL SUNFISH: Eight-Six / We are Top Clan Eight-Six.
LAM: I deliver myself to you.
CHARLOTTE: Are you <indicating instability or foreignness>?
LAM: I have great strength and unlimited food.
MALE SUNFISH #4: Food / Where is food?
TOM: <indicating impatience> We are hunting eels.
CHARLOTTE: Hunting eels / Remember the scent?
LAM: Yes / This is different food / More food / Air / Tools / I can give these things to you / Listen.
MALE SUNFISH #2 and #4: Danger / He is danger!
ALL MALE SUNFISH: <indicating swarm formation>
CHARLOTTE: No / Do not attack / Wait and listen.
TOM: Do not attack.
LAM: I am not Top Clan / I deliver myself to you / I offer truce.
CHARLOTTE: Deliver or truce?
LAM: Truce / I am no danger to you / I want to help / We are from a place unknown to you.
MALE SUNFISH #2 and #4: Sickness / Attack!
LAM: My tribe wants guides and teachers / We bring great strength / Great food / We offer truce.
CHARLOTTE: <indicating skepticism and hostility> Where is your tribe / How many in your tribe?
TOM AND BRIGIT: How many / Where / How many in your tribe?
ALL MALE SUNFISH: Attack / Attack!
Lam dropped from the ceiling and landed brazenly among them, causing the intelligent sunfish to scuttle back. Their bodies obstructed the savage males.
“He’s doing well,” Koebsch said.
“He needs to capitalize on his advantage,” Johal said, but Vonnie said, “No, it’s too soon.”
“Tell him to show them who he really is,” Johal said.
“Koebsch, don’t,” Vonnie said. “They’re barely starting to think he’s not insane. If he startles them, Tom and Charlotte won’t be able to stop the males from striking at him.”
“We’ll wait,” Koebsch said as Lam moved closer to the pack, using shapes like an equal now.
LAM: My tribe is larger than yours / Larger and far away / Friends / Truce / Strength / We are many eights and many eights and many eights.
MALE SUNFISH #1 and #4: Danger!
LAM: We are no danger / Truce / Food / Truce / We want scouts and teachers.
CHARLOTTE: Where is your tribe?
BRIGIT: Where / What is your name?
LAM: I do not want to surprise you / Listen / We are unknown to your tribe / Not sunfish.
TOM: <indicating confusion> Your tribe is not a Top Clan?
LAM: We are not sunfish.
The savage males could not contain their agitation. Two of them shrieked, then all four. If their instinct was to arouse their packmates and incite them to kill Lam, it almost worked.
The three intelligent sunfish responded to the war cry. That impulse was deeply rooted in them — and yet Lam brought the pack to a halt by screeching louder than any sunfish. Unlike their normal cries, his scream covered their entire spectrum of hearing. By deafening them, he limited their senses to smell and touch. It also must have hurt.
The sunfish cringed, ducking to shield their ears. Charlotte stood her ground, but she clasped her arms over six of her ears, limiting her ability to defend herself. In their efforts to retreat, two of the savage males climbed backwards up the walls of the pocket in the ice, which brought them above Lam into the position of lesser sunfish.
“Now,” Johal said. “He should show them now.”
“Koebsch, don’t,” Vonnie insisted. “Lam has the situation under control.”
“He could take command,” Johal said.
“That’s not what we want,” Vonnie said before Metzler added, “We don’t need slaves. We need allies, and we’re about to overwhelm them in a million ways with knowledge and technology. Let’s minimize the culture shock.”
“They’ll never be our equals,” Johal said.
“We should let them try,” Vonnie said. “That’s the right thing to do. We can afford to be generous with them.”
“Watch out!” Ash shouted.
The savage males raised their undersides, screeching and clacking with their beaks. Their challenge seemed to be aimed at Charlotte, Tom, and Brigit as well as Lam. They couldn’t understand the curiosity of the intelligent sunfish, so they intimidated them, too.
MALE SUNFISH: Eight-Six / We are Top Clan Eight-Six!
CHARLOTTE: Wait and listen.
MALE SUNFISH: This is our home / Danger!
CHARLOTTE: Wait.
They swarmed Lam, nipping at Brigit’s body and Tom’s arms as they passed. Tom lashed against one of the savage males, altering his trajectory. Brigit snapped at another male and missed. She and Charlotte coiled themselves to jump into combat.
Lam ended the fight with mecha speed and power. He slapped the first two males in their beaks, then clubbed the third male on top of his body.
The errant male who’d been bumped by Tom was the last to confront Lam. Faced with the bruised, inert forms of his comrades, he demurred, assuming a meek posture as he completed his arc. Lam could have slaughtered the helpless male. Instead, he caught him, then nudged him toward the ceiling, where the male clung obediently.
The other males were shaking off the blows they’d sustained. They joined their friend above Lam with stances of wariness and respect. At the same time, Charlotte, Brigit, and Tom also sprang lightly into the air. They had taken measure not only of Lam’s might but also his self-restraint.
CHARLOTTE: <indicating males> These ones are immature / They are stupid and easily frightened.
LAM: My tribe does not fight / We offer truce.
TOM: You are strange.
ALL SUNFISH: Strange / You are strange / Where is your tribe / What is your name?
LAM: Far away / Great distances and great size / Great age / Great places / I need your patience to explain.
TOM AND CHARLOTTE: <indicating confusion> You are sunfish / You are not sunfish / What is your name?
CHARLOTTE: You are the Old Ones?
ALL SUNFISH: Far away / Distant greatness.
LAM: We are not sunfish.
On a radio frequency to the ESA, he said:
—They’re using some of the shapes we found in the carvings. They’re talking about the empire.
“Should we pretend to be some remnant of that civilization?” Metzler asked.
“We can’t lie,” Vonnie said.
“It might help them make sense of us,” Koebsch said. “How else are we going to account for our maps or radar or the food we can bring?”
“Once we start down that road, we’re committed to deceiving every colony we meet. Either that or we betray this tribe as soon as someone better comes along. We’ve already made so many mistakes. Do we really want to keep lying?”
“It would be for their own good.”
“It’d be for our convenience.”