“Friend O’Mara radiates many and complex feelings,” it said finally. “Whenever you have been mentioned I have detected feelings of approval mixed with irritation, and a desire to help you. But I am not a telepath, so the feelings were clear but the thoughts were not. If friend O’Mara intended you to join the medical team …”“… It must have been really desperate,” said Naydrad suddenly, its fur rippling with excitement. “Look, they’re coming out!”
The Wem were pouring out of the mine opening as if someone had turned on a faucet, running and tail-bouncing and making loud, untranslatable noises as they charged towards Rhabwar. Apart from the three adults who were standing to one side of the tunnel mouth, and who had presumably been responsible for holding the others back, they were all young Wem. Some of them were so small and awkward that often they fell over sideways while trying to jump with their tails. But the falls did little to impede their progress and soon they had joined their friends who were shouting, running and tail-jumping in a continuous circle just beyond the meteor shield.
Murchison laughed suddenly. “I have the feeling,” it said, “that they should be waving bows and tomahawks at us.”
“My own feeling,” said Prilicla, “is that they are all curious and excited, and noisy as are most children in that emotional condition, and they are not a threat.”
“I’m sorry,” said Murchison. “That was a non-serious Earth historical reference, and not funny enough to be worth explaining. But the adults are moving closer now, two of them, anyway.”
They were moving slowly and more carefully than the young Wem, and except for one who was carrying a wooden staff, their hands were empty of weapons. Two of them were approaching in a slow succession of tail-jumps with short pauses between. The third one was moving even more slowly, on its hind limbs only and using the staff to help support its weight. Murchison spoke the thoughts that were already going through Gurronsevas’s mind.
“Physically they appear to be very weak,” said the pathologist, “and display extreme caution in their limb and tail movements. But I have the feeling this may be due to the frailty of age rather than illness. All three are females in a state of serious debilitation and …The one with the staff is heading for the communicator!”
“Your feeling is accurate, friend Murchison,” said Prilicla, “but your unspoken concern regarding, I suspect, the possibility of the staff being used to damage the communicator is unwarranted. The aged Wem female is radiating curiosity and minor irritation rather than anger and an urge to destroy.”
“It would take more than a walking-stick,” the Captain’s voice broke in, “to damage that unit.”
“True, friend Fletcher,” said the empath. “But as soon as the Wem reaches it, cancel the broadcast and switch to two-way communication mode. I have a feeling that it wants to talk.”
“And how long has it been,” said Danalta, speaking for the first time, “since one of your feelings was wrong?”
Outside the ship the crowd of young Wem were growing tired but not quiet. Instead of running and tail-jumping they had stopped to collect in small groups around the meteor screen, pushing at the resilient, near-invisible barrier or leaning against it at forty-five degree angles and shouting excitedly to each other when they did not fall over. A few of the more daring ones ran and jumped against the shield, shouting in excitement when they were bounced back. The two adults had joined them and were talking quietly together, but there were too many louder conversations going on at once for the ship’s translator to separate them, and the third adult had stopped beside the communicator which immediately ceased broadcasting.
“The silence, at least, is welcome,” said the Wem without any sign of hesitation. It went on, “Do you think we are all deaf? Or of retarded intelligence since the same message was repeated over and over? Don’t you people know that shouting reassurances at us, loudly and continually, angers more than it reassures? From beings who must have come from the stars, I expected more intelligence. Can this stupid machine listen as well as shout? What do you want of us?”
“Sound level reduced by two-thirds,” said the Captain quietly. “Go ahead, Doctor.”
“Thank you,” said Prilicla. It drifted closer to the communicator and tapped the transmit stud before going on, “We are sorry that the device was too noisy and that it angered you. The offense was not intended and neither was there any implication that your hearing or intelligence is defective. It was simply that we wished to be heard over a wide area.
“We want to talk with you and your friends,” Prilicla continued, “and to learn from you and to help you in whatever way is possible. You are as strange to us as we will be to you when you see us. We will answer questions about ourselves and we would like to ask questions of you. Provided there are no personal or cultural reasons for not giving the information and you are willing to give the answer to a stranger, the first question is what is your name. My name is Prilicla and I am a healer.”
“That’s a ridiculous name,” said the Wem. “It sounds like a handful of pebbles being rattled together. I am Tawsar, the First Teacher. I leave healing and preservation to others. What is your second question?”
“Are the young Wem safe where they are,” asked Prilicla, “so far from the shelter of your mine? They are in no danger from us but, now that it will soon be dark, is there a risk to them from night predators?”
Gurronsevas’s first thought was that there were more important questions that Prilicla could have asked, but his second thought was that expressing an early concern for the safety of the young displayed consideration and friendliness that would reinforce its words of reassurance more than anything else it could have said.
“It is our practice,” Tawsar replied, “to allow the children to escape from the mine for a few hours every day when the sun will not blight their young skins or work changes in the offspring they may one day bear. It also releases the energy that would otherwise make them unruly and noisy in class and keep them and their teachers from going to sleep. In the mine they cannot run freely or tail-jump, which is an unnatural situation for the very young. But they are in no danger from predators because all such creatures, be they large and dangerous or tiny rodents, have long since been hunted to extinction in this area. Your ship has provided a new experience for them as well as an outlet for their surplus energy. How long will your ship remain here?”
A school, thought Gurronsevas, was the ideal place to find curious and flexible minds. He could sense the medical team’s growing excitement.
“As long as you allow us to stay,” said Prilicla quickly. “But we would like to meet you and your friends in person instead of speaking through this device. Is that possible?”
Tawsar was silent for a long moment, then it said, “We should not waste time talking to you. Our behavior will be publicly criticized. No matter, we are curious and too old to care. But you must leave before the return of our hunters. This you must promise me.”
“We promise it,” said Prilicla simply, and there was no doubt in the minds of the medical team that the promise would be kept. “But there may be a problem when we show ourselves to you. Physically we differ greatly from the Wem. The young, perhaps you yourself, might find us visually horrendous and repulsive.”
Tawsar made a sound that did not translate, then said, “We have not seen the creatures from the other starship, but they have given us word-pictures of themselves. They are strange, upright creatures without a balancing tail, some of them covered in fur and others with fur only on their heads. But they wanted to change our ways, so our hunters smashed their speaking devices before leaving. As for frightening the children, I doubt that you could appear more horrendous than the creatures with which their imaginations have already populated your ship.