“How do we stop them?” Ukatonen asked.
“If we knew that, this would still be our land. I’m sorry, Ukatonen. That is something your people will have to figure out for yourselves. We’d like to help, but remember, we lost the fight.”
“I like them,” Ukatonen confessed. “They’re so alive. There is so much my people could learn from them. So much we could learn from each other. But— ” He shook his head.
“They’ve made a right mess of the planet, though,” Stan noted.
“I don’t want that to happen to Tiangi.”
“Well, what are you goin’ to do to stop it?”
Ukatonen shook his head and stared into the glowing red embers of the fire, lost in thought. After a while he heard Stan get up and walk off to his bark shelter.
Stan’s question haunted him for three days. Finally he started gathering his things together.
“You goin’, then?” Stan asked.
Ukatonen nodded.
“Have you figured out what you’re goin’ to do?”
“No,” Ukatonen said, “but I do know that I have to stop running away from the problem. I’ve got a couple of my people coming here to Earth. Maybe they can help me figure out what to do.”
Standing in the boarding bay of Broumas Station with Moki and Eerin, Ukatonen watched as the heavy airlock doors swung open. Anitonen and Naratonen were waiting on the other side. It took him a second to recognize them— they seemed strangely long-limbed and fragile. He had a hard time believing they were real.
Anitonen was telling Naratonen how relieved she was to finally be off this ship. It was strange, watching two other Tendu talk to each other in skin speech. He and Moki had fallen into the habit of using a mixture of Standard sound speech and skin speech, and even their skin speech was peppered with human words, unless they wanted to convey something privately. It made the arriving enkar seem like strangers, even though he knew both of them well.
Before he could stop him, Moki rushed forward, and embraced the two surprised enkar. Their ears lifted in surprise, and Ukatonen thought he saw a yellow flicker of irritation on Naratonen’s shoulder. He felt a sudden flash of anger. It had been years since Moki had seen another Tendu. Couldn’t they understand how much the little bami had missed others of his species?
Then Moki remembered his manners and stepped back, becoming stiff and formal. He’put his almost-complete arm behind his back, self-conscious about his stubby, half-formed fingers.
“Welcome, Naratonen and Anitonen. Your presence does us honor,” he said both in formal Tendu skin speech and aloud in Human Standard. “Please allow me to lead you to where Ukatonen and Eerin are waiting for you.”
Ukatonen stepped forward as they approached. “Welcome, en,” he said, doubling the symbol for “en” to indicate that he meant both of them. “We will be staying here overnight, then going to an ecological research station on Earth. It is much like Tiangi there. You’ll like it.”
“And when will we meet Eerin’s family? Moki told us so much about them on the comm,” Anitonen said.
“It’s midwinter there, and very cold. You would have to wear a warmsuit whenever you went outside. In a few months, when the weather’s better, we’ll go and visit them. But Eerin’s daughter, Mariam, and some of her family will be joining us here on Broumas, so you’ll get a chance to meet them. They will be coming down to Earth with us to help look after Mariam.”
“I was hoping to see some of the humans’ performances,” Naratonen told him. “The plays that I saw on Tri-V were very interesting.”
“You will,” Ukatonen assured him. “After you are recovered from your trip, and are used to speaking aloud, we will visit many different countries around the world, meeting their leaders, and watching their musicians and actors perform.”
“I still do not understand the idea of countries,” Anitonen said, as they followed their security escorts into the hotel elevator. “Who determines what one is? How do they tell which country a person belongs to? Why are they all so different?”
Ukatonen shook his head. He had forgotten how little he had known when he first came here. They had so much to learn. “It is difficult to explain. Imagine, if you will, if individual villages ran the world. That is what countries are like. Only more so.”
Anitonen’s ears lifted. “It would be disharmony, and worse. I cannot imagine such a situation.”
“It exists here on Earth.”
“And have you done nothing to stop it?” Anitonen demanded.
Ukatonen spread his hands. “We have vowed to abide by their rules of noninterference.”
“En, it is not his problem to solve. Nor yours,” Eerin said. “We humans have been trying to bring peace between our people for millennia. Sometimes the attempts to bring peace only made things worse for everyone.”
“I have been studying the problem,” Ukatonen said. “Some of the feuds between different groups of humans have been going on for hundreds of generations. It is a very complex tangle, and not easily undone. You loosen one thread and six others tighten. If there is anything that we can do to help bring harmony here, it will require much study before we act.”
A blue and green ripple of amusement coursed over Naratonen. “Anitonen is still young, and so much time working with humans has made her hasty.”
Anitonen browned with shame. “I am sorry, en,” she said as the elevator doors opened.
“You will learn, Anitonen,” Naratonen said in gentle, reassuring tones. He brushed her shoulder with his knuckles.
Analin had set up a press conference in the hotel’s largest conference room. Eerin, Ukatonen, and Moki took turns translating formal greetings to the people of Earth from the two newly arrived enkar, and answering questions on their behalf. Anitonen and Naratonen watched the goings-on in amazement. At least, Ukatonen thought with a flicker of amusement, they didn’t embarrass themselves as much as he and Moki had at their first press conference.
Ukatonen did his best to spin the press conference out as long as he could, but Analin finally brought it to a halt. As soon as they reached their rooms, Ukatonen vanished into the shower, putting off the moment of linking as long as he could. Eventually, the shower timed out and shut itself off, forcing him to face the others. Anitonen and Naratonen were waiting for him in the living room with Moki and Eerin.
“Ukatonen, it has been a long time since we linked, come join us,” Anitonen said.
“No, I-I can’t,” Unatonen said.
Purple clouds of puzzlement flowed over the newcomers’ bodies.
“What is the matter?” Naratonen said.
“I was injured.”
“Then you need healing. We should link,” Naratonen insisted.
“It was my head, the part where my presence lived. Moki did the best he could but— it is beyond healing.” he told them, grey with grief. “I would die, but my knowledge is needed. And,” he said, gesturing with his chin at Moki and Eerin, “they would not let me die.”
“That does not matter. You need linking. Come,” Naratonen said, holding out his arms. “We will learn what you have to teach as quickly as we can, that we may not keep you from an honorable death.”
Ukatonen knew that once he said the words in his heart, his relationship with the enkar, with the Tendu, and with the universe would change irrevocably. He looked over at Moki and Eerin for a moment, to strengthen his resolve, then spoke:
“Perhaps I no longer seek an honorable death, but an honorable, if imperfect, life.”
The two enkar stared at him in amazement. “How can such a thing be?” Naratonen asked. “How can you think this?”
A flicker of ironic amusement flowed over Ukatonen’s body. “It is one of the many things I have learned here.” He held out his arms. “Link with me, and I will show you.”