“I don’t see the point,” said Ram. “You can’t show them to anybody. You can’t use them to prove anything you might write about.”
Wheaton didn’t even bother to answer.
“Father’s already at the peak of his profession,” Deborah explained to Noxon later. “He doesn’t need to publish this stuff. It just makes him happy to know it. He and I will watch these vids later. He’s already told me to erase them when he dies.”
They did not visit sequential days. From the Erectids’ paths, Noxon knew that this encampment remained for three years, before prey animals grew too sparse and they moved on. So each day, they visited a different point in time, noticing how the children had grown, how courtship patterns had changed.
“Not monogamous yet,” said Wheaton. “But it’s starting. Repeated pairings between the same couple. And because females have to be larger and stronger to defend against hyenas, they’re also strong enough to resist being kidnapped and sequestered.”
“Raped,” Deborah corrected.
“‘Raped’ carries criminal connotations,” said Wheaton. “Because of the progress the Erectids are making, we can afford to criminalize it now, must do so. But they inherited chimplike behavior patterns in which rape was one of the few ways around the dominance of the alpha male. It was the only way non-alphas could get their genes into the next generation.”
“And now we still can’t expunge that old pattern,” said Deborah to Noxon. “Even though ‘kidnap-and-sequester’ has been criminalized in most cultures for thousands of years.”
“Civilization only became possible as monogamous pair-bonding emerged,” said Wheaton, “which it’s only just starting to do in this tribe. The females are getting a real advantage from being larger, and in a while they’ll be in a position to start objecting and making their objections stick. Besides, alpha males can tolerate a little genetic insertion by stealthy beta males, but an uxorious male has only one mate, and he can’t afford any genetic imposition from other males. Our Erectids are just taking their first steps on the road to sapience and civilization.”
“And even then, alphas and stalkers and rapists still keep popping up.”
“Because those behaviors still succeed, reproductively, often enough to keep the genes active.” Wheaton held out his hands, as if asking for something. “Give ’em a break. These kids are still sixty or seventy thousand generations away from equal treatment of the sexes.”
“‘These kids,’” said Ram.
“Kids with a new car. Just learning how to pilot this upright body.” Wheaton turned away, finished with discussion of an issue he must have resolved in his own mind decades ago. “Noxon, we’ve observed and recorded nearly their whole time at this site. Can we please follow them on a hunt?”
“They run for a living. We can’t keep up with them, especially not if we’re slicing time, which makes them faster, us slower. None of us is fit enough to stay with them on a hunt.”
“Pick a short chase,” said Deborah. “We’ll saunter to the kill site, and then you’ll bump us back in time to when the prey arrives with our friends in hot pursuit.”
“So all you want is to be there for the kill,” said Noxon.
“They always leave the females behind. I’ll be the first woman to witness their triumph. See if the stories they tell about it are true.”
“They don’t tell stories,” said Wheaton.
“They move their mouths,” said Deborah. “They’re anthropes. They must be lying.”
There was no sound in sliced time, so as long as they remained invisible, they couldn’t tell whether the sounds the Erectids made were anything like language.
“There’s one kill site we could drive to,” said Noxon. “It’s near a public parking lot.”
“Even better,” said Ram. “We astronauts are so out of shape, after sitting around in a starship for a few years.”
“You should see the shape your twin is in, after going in and out of stasis for eleven thousand years.”
“He’s still alive,” said Ram. “Good for him.”
The next morning they drove to the parking lot early. It was at a ranger station, and it was also a jumping-off point for photographic safaris. So there were plenty of other people. But they were all gathered around the hovercars that would carry them out into the savannah. Only one ranger noticed that the Wheaton group was heading out on foot.
“Not safe,” said the ranger. “The lions stay away from the station but not very far away. And they aren’t the only dangerous animals.”
“We aren’t going far. Just wanted a brief glimpse without a car around us.”
“There’s a reason we send people out in cars,” said the ranger.
“An excellent reason, and more than just one,” said Deborah. “I assure you I’m a coward, and I’ll have us back in ten minutes.”
“I won’t be keeping track of time,” said the ranger. “No matter how long before you come back, we will not send anyone out to search for you. With luck, we’ll find your bodies while your passports are still legible.”
Noxon smiled. “Now she’ll hold my hand very tightly, sir. Thank you.”
The ranger shook his head and moved away.
“He was really making sure we weren’t armed,” said Wheaton. “There are still people who think ‘safari’ requires that you bring home trophies from animals you killed yourself.”
“Whereas we only want to watch our ancestors bring down a… something,” said Ram. Then, to Noxon: “Do you know what the prey is?”
“Not sure,” said Noxon. “I mean, I can see glimpses of it. Might be ancestral to a gnu. Large grazer from a smallish herd, anyway.”
“And is it a weak one? An old one?” asked Wheaton.
“I don’t think so,” said Noxon. “They don’t go for the old and sickly, or the babies. Since they know how to smoke the meat to preserve it, it’s worth the extra work to bring down large, healthy prey. They have enough men to carry home most of the meat.”
“It’s pretty remarkable,” said Wheaton. “Males hunting cooperatively. Wish we could hear whether they talk to each other during the hunt.”
“I’ll jump us back without slicing,” said Noxon. “To five minutes or so before they arrive. If we hide, we can hear if they’re calling out on the approach.”
“Will you know if it’s language?” asked Wheaton. “I mean, the ability to translate that you got from the Wall on Garden—will it work?”
“I don’t know,” said Noxon. “If it’s a human language, then I’m supposed to be able to make sense of it. But who knows where that line is drawn?”
“It’s a good plan,” said Ram. “As long as we all remain very still, and hold hands continuously so that when we need to go invisible, Noxon can carry us along.”
“It’s more than that,” said Noxon. “When I start slicing, we have to move. We only become invisible if we’re in motion.”
“We’ve done this about ten times now,” said Deborah. “We know that.”
Noxon shook his head. “You know it, but it’s not a reflex for you, the way it is for me. I’ve had to drag you to get you moving several times.”
“Once,” said Deborah.
“She thinks because she has no eyes, she’s already invisible,” said Wheaton.
“Maybe I did when I was little,” said Deborah, “but I can see now.”
“The kill happens right over there. At that time, there must be a little gully, because the prey goes down a little and they take it on the uphill slope on the other side. Nothing deep, but it slows the prey down enough.”
“Where should we be watching as they approach?” asked Wheaton.
“The prey comes from over there,” said Noxon. “The wing men are there and there. The followers form a U shape right behind the prey. Most of the way, the prey kept leaving them behind, then stopping to breathe and rest and recover while they just kept jogging along. But the wing men—they’re real runners. Fast and steady, so the prey can never turn very far out of the direct line of the hunters behind them.”