FORTY-EIGHT
Sitting on a riverbank beside lounging aliens, Cliff recalled his father showing him how to cast for fish.
The rhythm, first — how to cast the line with his elbow doing the real work and his wrist firm while the left hand payed out the line. A quick rainbow trout had leaped for it in a silver flash. He had felt it tug back and forth as it fought. When he reeled it in, the gasping body was a sacred, beautiful thing. He had thrown it back, on impulse, and his dad had laughed, comprehending the wonder of it.
No such goal here. He landed a big, floppy thing that watched him with huge round yellow eyes when he dragged its bulk up onto the shoreline. Oddly, once out of the water it did not fight. Maybe it expected to be tossed back in? If aliens did catch-and-release, maybe so.
He fidgeted the hook out — the fish mouths were bony and complex here — and turned with the heavy body in his arms. The Sil danced their heads around and made a high, murmuring noise. Slowly it dawned on him that this was their way of applauding.
One Sil came forward, took the fish, and did an astonishing thing. It cast the fish up and with a flashing knife blade caught the skin, tossed the fish up using the leverage, and spooled the skin off. It was a miraculous trick, skinning the fish — and then the Sil sectioned the fish, too, in slashing cuts as it turned in air. One of the Sil offered Cliff a hand-sized slice of sashimi.
Cliff took a bite out of courtesy. It was near tasteless, something like tai.
These creatures were quicker than the eye could see.
Their lands were different, too: lush greenery, few rocky landscapes, odd trees and big-leafed plants rich in fruit. Plenty of scampering small game, too, which the Sil must relish hunting.
He sat and thought about the Sil for a while and then of Beth. He wondered where she was, what she had learned. He recalled the soft brush of her hair on his chest when she hovered over him, sighing in low, sliding notes. He longed to see her, share the eerie wonder of this place with her. There might be trouble over Irma, but …
He had deliberately not thought about the problem. Irma had been a refuge from the increasing tensions that came from roving in hostile territory, yes.… But was there more to it? He didn’t know.
Cliff shrugged. “No meaning at all. I’m just feeling good.”
She yawned. “My dad always said — ” She did a deep, boisterous male voice. “ — it’s never too late to have a happy childhood.”
“I already had mine.”
“Did you follow all that talk from Quert?”
“About being an ‘Adopted’ species?”
“Yeah, that whoever runs this place takes on board species from worlds they cruise by.”
“They have the room for it.”
“Not really a new idea, just bigger scale. I mean, we humans invented our own little niche evolution when we domesticated wolves.”
“Sure, and when we turned bottle gourds into containers. But equally, that let dogs and gourds colonize the human niches — catch a ride on an opportunity.”
“The Bowl is an opportunity passing by, with land to spare.”
“This is a clue to why they built this thing. It’s impossibly big, sure, using materials so strong, they rival the subnuclear struts we have in
She sat up and watched a Sil try Cliff’s makeshift fishing rod. The Sil had their own, but were curious. It spun a line out a long distance with one liquid move. “You mean, they haven’t done what we did to Earth.”
“Right. And got to go star-hopping while they do it.”
“We evolved to take short-term predictions and make snap decisions using them. Long term isn’t our strong suit. Just look at the Age of Appetite — it ran more than two centuries!”
“Must have been fun.”
He applauded as the Sil caught a fish, uglier and even bigger than his. His noise made Sils nearby turn, startled, and give them long looks. Cliff recalled that if humans stared at each other for long, it meant they would either fight or make love. With the Sil, staring was clearly more complex. Their graceful faces used the eyes as much as humans used their mouths for signaling. Apparently right eye squinting and left wide open meant puzzlement.
He contented himself with just waving. Their eyes widened in appreciation.
“The 2100s were about digging out from the damage, getting the climate stable. Only way to do it was with a big presence in space, metals and rare earths from asteroids, a solar system economy. Then we got hungry for the stars.”
“They must’ve, too.”
“Then why not just send out ramscoops, like us?”
“Maybe they did. Maybe came to Earth and left no trace.”
“Haven’t we seen Earth species here?”
He nodded. “I’ve seen plenty of things I recognized. It could be parallel evolution — function calls out form, the same shapes. Like that fish. It’s god-awful ugly, but so are some fish I saw in the Caribbean.”
“Bet it tastes good, though.”
His stomach growled. “I’ll start a fire. That’s a good point — the twist of molecules, the chemical hookups here. They’re close enough to ours so we don’t starve.”
Quert appeared from the rich foliage, carrying a pack. “Swimmer! Good.” In one swift sweep, he took it from Cliff and said, “Cook we will.”
Cliff sniffed the air. “Woodsmoke. They already knew I’d catch something.”
“They’re smart. I wonder why they took such losses just to pluck us off that train.”
“They want out from under the boss who runs this.”
“Well, we sure can’t help them.”
“Probably not. We’re damned lucky to be alive.”
“Did you think we’d last this long?”
“Not really.” Cliff took a deep breath and plunged on, feeling awkward. “I … didn’t think we’d become lovers, either.”
She blinked and looked hard at the river flowing past, clear and cool. Avoiding his eyes. “We’re not, really. At least, I don’t love you.”
“Me either. ‘Utility sex,’ wasn’t that what you called it?”
She giggled nervously. “I did say that.”
“You and your guy were going to have a standard contract marriage?” he said to be saying something.
“Yup, when we got settled at Glory. Then I’d bring out my stored eggs and have a family. We figured a twenty-five-year contract would do that nicely.”
“Beth and me, we hadn’t gotten that specific. In all the training, there wasn’t time to…”
“To really think it through? Actually, it’s feeling it through that does the trick.”
“Um. ‘Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.’ I suppose.”
“What? Oh, Shakespeare. Well, this is alteration” — she waved a hand at the Bowl, which hung like a shimmering haze across the sky — “beyond anything I imagined.”
“So…” He savored finally getting some use from his high school English, then sobered. He wanted to get something settled but didn’t know how. “We keep up with the … utility?”
She shrugged. “It helps.” Then she gave him a wicked grin. “That’s my story for now.”
“Might be trouble when we meet our mates.”
“Face that when it comes.”
He stood, stretching. He watched in the distance dust devils climb toward the roof of the sky, in an atmosphere so deep, he could see huge dark clouds that hung like mountains in the high, fuzzy distance. How were they ever going to figure out this place?
