"On Terra they call it a dilemma, from words meaning 'two horns', as when one is charged by a wild kyuumei and is likely to be caught on one horn or the other."
"But sir, how can I resolve this 'diremma'?"
"Forget it for now. If you let the matter rest, it may solve itself."
Looking back at Salazar, Alexis said: "Hurry up, lazybones! How did Igor get hurt? I heard something about an attempt to hold up the train."
"Well, this afternoon we were coming up a long grade in low gear ..."
When Salazar had finished his tale, in which he modestly minimized his own part, she said: "It's that fuckomaniac Cantemir! I'd better get out one of our big-game rifles and clean it. If I ever get George in my sights, he'd better have his insurance paid up."
"You'd kill him on mere suspicion?"
"Damn right! Here in the outback it's often kill or be killed, like on the old American frontier. He wouldn't be the first."
As dangerous in her way as Dumfries was in his, thought Salazar; she was as addicted to power as Cantemir was to sex—or as he, Kirk Salazar, was to making his mark in science. He had better keep his guard up with Alexis at all times.
Alexis's campsite was not far. On command, the Kooks opened a bundle containing a tent. In short order they set up the poles, attached tent ropes, hammered in stakes, and spread canvas.
"There!" said Alexis. "See? You've even got a portable washstand."
"You certainly manage these things efficiently."
"Thanks to the Kooks' literal-mindedness and eidetic memories. If you once explain something clearly and correctly, they've got it for good."
"But—ah—where will you sleep?"
"You'll learn. Go to bed; we get up before sunrise."
A quarter hour later saw Salazar, naked in the sultry air, stretching out on a large inflatable mattress. Distant thunder growled.
Salazar was about to turn out the little oil lamp, when the flap gaped and Alexis slipped in. He goggled as she whipped off shirt, trousers, and underwear. Staring down at him, she said:
"Get over on your side! You didn't expect to have this tent all to yourself, did you?"
"Well—ah—do you mean—are we going to—ah—"
"Going to fuck, you mean? Let me explain. What I do in Sungecho is my business. But from Amoen to Kashania I'm a holy high priestess, as virginal as a newborn Kook, and don't ever let me hear you say anything different around my people!"
She frowned at Salazar's midsection. "Another thing. In the community we wear clothes only to keep warm, any more being regarded as an affectation. But when we're naked, it's a terrible breach of manners for a man to show an erection. Down, Towser, down! That's better. It's that silly Judeo-Christian tabu which makes mundanes equate nudity with sex. They have nothing to do with each other; you can screw dressed or undressed, just as you can standing, sitting, or lying. But give a male mundane a glimpse of a tit, and he gets the hots. We're beyond that medieval nonsense. Are you all washed and toothbrushed?"
"Uh huh," said Salazar. Thunder sounded closer, and rain began to patter on the canvas.
"I'll put out the light," she said, turning off the lamp. In the darkness Salazar felt the motion of the mattress as she lay down on her side.
A blinding flash, visible even through the canvas, was instantly followed by a terrific crash of thunder. Rain roared. Salazar was seized by female limbs as Alexis, slithering across, wrapped herself around him like an amorous octopus.
"I'm frightened," she murmured.
Feeling virile, Salazar held her while rain drummed and celestial fireworks continued, diminishing. At length—perhaps a quarter hour later, Salazar thought-she stopped trembling. Then he felt a hand exploring his person. She said:
"Oh—oh, it's up again!"
"Well, what do you ex—"
She murmured: "Guess I'm not so holy-virginal tonight after all. Put your hand here ... All right; ready when you are ... Ouch! Watch where you put those bony knees."
Soon she cried: "Oh, damn! Why did you have to go off when I was just getting warmed up?"
"Sorry; I couldn't help it."
"Don't worry; we'll try again in an hour or two. But you seemed pretty amateurish. How much have you done?"
"Well—ah—perhaps I shouldn't admit it, but this is my first."
"Great Shiiko, d'you mean I've deflowered a male virgin?"
"If you want to put it that way."
She burst into a sputter of laughter. Salazar asked in a hurt voice: "What's so funny about that?"
"Nothing, nothing. You must be a neo-Puritan."
"It's in the family background."
"Poor fellow!"
"Why? There's no law against not fornicating."
"But what a dismal life!"
"As my father says, celibacy may not be the most fun in the world, but nobody ever died of it. Anyway, I've been too preoccupied; a doctorate comes hard. By the way, are you safe?"
"Of course! Had myself tubed years ago so I can take my fun when I want it."
"What about love? Do you ever think of it?"
"Me fall for that sentimental nonsense? Ha! The main thing is power. Get that, and it'll get you whatever else you want. Now go to sleep!" She adjusted the poignet on her wrist. "This'll wake me up about the time you'll be ready for another."
IV – Mount Sungara
The Kooks who bore Salazar's litter, one before and one behind, trotted tirelessly along the trail. The litter bounced in time with their jog, one-two, one-two, until Salazar felt as if he were trapped in a chemical agitator. He would have preferred to walk; but although a good hiker, he knew he could never keep up with that distance-eating lope.
Alexis's litter bounced in front, flanked by her two reptilian bodyguards. Just behind Salazar came two others full of baggage. Choku's brought up the rear.
Kirk Salazar tried to watch the landscape as it jiggled past, to connect the fauna and flora he saw with what he had read. But his mind kept slipping back to his night with Alexis. Her lush curves blanked the occasional glimpses of animals, bipedal or quadrupedal but always semireptilian, watching the train from the edge of the timber or breaking into flight.
Mixed feelings troubled him. On one hand he felt older, stronger, and readier for contingencies than ever before. He had read about the ethology of the large Terran mammal called the elephant, now reduced to a few thousand in semidomestication. It was said that while elephants of both sexes and both species could be tamed and trained to do useful work, a male once allowed to breed was likely to become unmanageable, as if it told itself it was now a bull elephant whom nobody could order around. He thought he felt a little as a bred bull elephant must have felt.
It was time he put his mind upon his profession, but that proved hard. Damn it to hell! he thought. Can't I think of anything but sex? He had not come to Sunga for that. He did not even much like Alexis, whom he judged to be an aggressive, domineering egomaniac.
Nor did this intimacy with her leave him comfortable. While he was not restrained by religious tabus, his family's neo-Puritan background left him uneasy after violating them. Perhaps he should have saved it for Calpurnia Fisker, whom it seemed inevitable that he should marry, unless she got tired of merely dating and waiting and decided to cast her hook elsewhere. He and she had a tacit understanding that neither would screw around until they made their relationship formal.
Now he was angry at himself for not taking his courage in his hands and marrying the girl; if he had, he might have enjoyed this ecstasy for years. They suited each other very well, a fact he had not appreciated until becoming involved with a really difficult female. He had been too careful, like the man whom the fyunga ate while he was trying to remember the polite imperative in Feënzuo for "Help!"