“You misunderstood me—or perhaps I expressed myself poorly. But even if this were wholly true—which it isn’t—the need still exists for a whole variety of houses, on Earth, as well as on the other planets to which you sell houses.”
Omon Bozhd spoke. “You really are irrational, Farr Sainh, if I may invest the word with its least offensive aura of meaning. Let me expatiate. On Earth you claim that a need exists for housing. On Earth there is also a surplus of wealth—a surplus so great that vast projects are generated by the impounded energy. This wealth could solve the problem of deficient housing in the twinkling of an eye—if those who controlled the wealth so desired. Since you understand this course of events to be unlikely, you turn your eye speculatively upon us relatively poor Iszics, hoping that we will prove less obdurate than the men of your own planet. When you find that we are absorbed in our own interests, you become resentful—and herein lies the irrationality of your position.”
Farr laughed. “This is a distorted reflection of reality. We are wealthy, true enough. Why? Because we constantly try to maximize production and minimize effort. The Iszic houses represent this minimizing of effort.”
“Interesting,” murmured Zhde Patasz. Omon Bozhd nodded sagely. The glide-car turned and rose to drift above a tangle of spiky gray bushes overgrown with black spheres. Beyond, across a fringe of beach, lay the calm blue world-ocean, the Pheadh. The glide-car nosed out over the low surf and slid out toward an off-shore islet.
Zhde Patasz spoke in a solemn, almost sepulchral, voice. “You are now to be shown what very few are permitted to see: an experimental station where we conceive and develop new houses.”
Farr tried to make a suitable reply, expressing interest and appreciation, but Zhde Patasz had withdrawn his attention and Farr became silent.
The platform heaved across the water, the whorls of air creating a seethe of white spume astern. Light from Xi Aurigae glittered on the blue water and Farr thought what an Earthly scene this might have been—but for the oddly-shaped glide-car, the tall milky-white men in stripes beside him, and the peculiar aspect of the trees on the island ahead. Those visible were of a type he had not seen previously: heavy, low, with densely matted black branches. The foliage, fleshy strips of brown tissue, seemed in constant motion.
The glide-car slowed, coasted toward the beach, and halted twenty feet offshore. Uder Che, the architect, jumped into the knee-deep water and cautiously walked ashore, carrying a black box. The trees reacted to his presence, at first leaning toward him, then recoiling and unlacing their branches. After a moment there was a gap wide enough for the glide-car, which now proceeded across the beach and through the gap. Uder Che followed and boarded the car; the trees once more joined branches to create an impenetrable tangle.
Zhde Patasz explained that, “The trees will kill anyone who attempts to pass without manifesting the proper safe-signal, which is radiated from the box. In the past, planters often mounted expeditions against each other—no longer the case, of course—and the sentry trees are perhaps not strictly necessary. But we are a conservative lot and maintain our old customs.”
Farr looked around him, making no attempt to conceal his interest. Zhde Patasz watched him with patient amusement. “When I came to Iszm,” said Farr at last, “I hoped for an opportunity like this, but never expected it. I admit that I’m puzzled. Why do you show me these things?” He searched the pale ridged face, but inevitably could read nothing from the Iszic’s expression.
Zhde Patasz reflected a moment before he answered. “Conceivably you demand reasons where none exist, beyond the normal solicitude of a host for an honored guest.”
“This is a possibility,” admitted Farr. He smiled politely. “But perhaps other motivations also exist?”
“Conceivably. The raid of the Thords still troubles us and we are anxious for more information. But let us not concern ourselves with such matters today. As a botanist, I believe you will be interested in the contrivances of myself and Uder Che.”
“Oh indeed.” And for the next two hours Farr examined houses with buttressed pods for the high-gravity worlds of Cleo 8 and Martinon’s Fort and loose complex houses with pods like balloons for Fei, where gravity was only half that of Iszm. There were trees comprised of a central columnar trunk and four vast leaves, arching out and over to the ground to form four domed halls illuminated by the pale green transmitted light. There was a tough-trunked tree supporting a single turretlike pod, with lanceolate foliage spiking outward at the base: a watch-tower for the feuding tribesmen of Eta Scorpionis. In a walled enclosure were trees with varying degrees of motility and awareness. “A new and adventurous area of research,” Zhde Patasz told Farr. “We play with the idea of growing trees to perform special tasks, such as sentry duty, garden supervision, mineral exploration, simple machine tending. As I say, we are merely amusing ourselves at the moment. I understand that on Duroc Atoll, the master planter in residence has created a tree which first produces colored fibers, and from these weaves rugs of characteristic pattern. We ourselves have performed our share of bizarre feats. For instance, in yonder cupola, we have achieved a conjunction which might be thought impossible, if one did not understand the basis of the adaptation.”
Farr made a polite sound of wonder and admiration. He noted that both Omon Bozhd and Uder Che were giving particularly respectful attention to the planter’s words, as if they signified something portentous. And suddenly Farr realized that whatever the motive for Zhde Patasz’s elaborate hospitality, it was now about to be made clear to him.
Zhde Patasz continued in the harsh, crisp accent of the aristocratic Iszic. “The mechanism, if I may call it that, of this conjoining is in theory not difficult. The animal corpus depends upon food and oxygen, plus a few subsidiary compounds. The vegetable system, of course, produces these substances, and recycles the waste products of the animal. It is tempting to try for a closed system, requiring only energy from an external source. Our achievements, while I think you will find them dramatic, still fall far short of elegance. There is no little real mingling of tissue: all interchange is done across semi-permeable membranes which isolate plant fluids and animal fluids. Nevertheless a start has been made.” As Zhde Patasz spoke he moved toward a pale yellow-green hemisphere above which tall yellow fronds swung and fluttered. Zhde Patasz gestured toward an arched opening. Onion Bozhd and Uder Che stayed discreetly to the rear. Farr looked at them, dubiously.
Zhde Patasz bowed once more. “As a botanist I am sure you will be fascinated by our achievement.”
Farr studied the opening, trying to assess its implications. Within was something which the Iszics intended him to see, some stimulus which they intended him to experience… Danger? They had no need to trick him; he was in any case at their mercy. Zhde Patasz moreover was bound by the universal laws of hospitality, as firmly as any Bedouin sheik. Danger there would be none. Farr stepped forward and passed into the interior of the dome. At the center was a slightly raised bed of rich soil, on which rested a large bubble, a sac of yellow gum. The surface of this sac was veined with glistening white strings and tubes of membrane which at the apex merged to form a pale gray trunk, which in turn supported a symmetrical crown of branches and wide heart-shaped black-green leaves. So much Fan glimpsed in am instant, though from the moment of his entry his attention was fixed on that which was contained in the capsule of gum: a naked Thord body.
The feet rested in a dark yellow sediment at the bottom of the sac, the head was close up under the trunk, the arms were raised shoulder high and terminated, not in hands, but in tangled balls of gray fiber, which then became ropes rising into the trunk. The top of the scalp was removed, revealing the mass of orange spherules which comprised the Thord brain. About the exposed brain hung a nimbus which Farr, moving closer, saw to be a mesh of near-invisible threads, likewise knotting into a rope and disappearing into the trunk. The eyes were covered by the shutter of a dark brown membrane which served the Thord for eyelids.