“Were you surprised at the results of the tests?” Richard asked after a short silence.
“Not really. I guess so much has happened to us… And you know, Richard, I can still remember when Ellie was conceived. You were not really yourself again yet.”
“I talked to Ellie and Archie quite a bit this afternoon while you were napping. The changes the octospiders induced in Ellie are permanent, like mutations. Nikki probably has some of the same characteristics-it depends on the exact genetic mixture. Of course hers will be diluted by another generation…”
Richard didn’t finish his thought. He yawned, and then reached over for Nicole’s hand. They sat quietly together for several minutes before Nicole broke the silence.
“Richard, do you remember my telling you about the Senoufo chronicles? About the woman from the tribe, the daughter of a queen, who was prophesied to carry the Senoufo blood ‘even unto the stars’?”
“Vaguely,” Richard answered. “We haven’t spoken about it for a long time.”
“Omeh was certain that I was the woman in the chronicles… ‘the woman without companion,’ he called her. Do you believe there is any possible way that we can have knowledge of the future?”
Richard laughed. “Everything in nature follows certain laws. Those laws can be expressed as differential equations in time. If we know precisely the initial conditions of the system at any given epoch, and the exact equations representing the laws of nature, then theoretically we can predict all outcomes. We can’t, of course, because our knowledge is always imperfect, and the rules of chaos limit the applicability of our estimation techniques.”
“Suppose,” Nicole said, propping herself up on an elbow, “there were individuals or even groups who did not know mathematics, but could somehow see or feel both the laws and the initial conditions you mentioned. Couldn’t they perhaps intuitively solve at least part of the equations and predict the future using insight that we cannot model or quantify?”
“It’s possible,” said Richard. “But remember, extraordinary claims require—”
“-extraordinary evidence. I know,” said Nicole. She paused for a moment. “I wonder what destiny is, then. Is it something we humans make up after the fact? Or is it real? And if destiny really exists as a concept, how can it be explained by the laws of physics?”
“I’m not following you, darling,” Richard said.
“It’s confusing even to me,” Nicole said. “Am I who I am because, as Omeh insisted when I was a little girl, it was always my destiny to travel in space? Or am I the person I am because of all the choices I have personally made and the skills I have consciously developed?”
Richard laughed again. “Now you’re very close to one of the fundamental philosophical conundrums, the debate between God’s omniscience and man’s free will.”
“I didn’t mean to be,” said Nicole reflectively. “I just can’t shake the notion that nothing that has happened in my absolutely incredible life would have been a surprise to Omeh.”
7
Their departure breakfast was a feast. The octospiders provided more than a dozen different fruits and vegetables, as well as a hot, thick cereal made, according to Archie and Ellie, from the very tall grasses just north of the power plant. While they were eating, Richard asked the octospider what had happened to the avian hatchlings Tammy and Timmy, as well as the manna melons and the sessile material. He was not satisfied with the translated, somewhat vague response that all the other species were fine.
“Look, Archie,” Richard said in his characteristic brusque manner. He was now comfortable enough with his alien host that he no longer felt it necessary to be overly polite. “I have far more than a casual interest in those creatures. I rescued them and raised them from birth by myself. I would like to see them, even if only briefly… Under any circumstances, I think I deserve a more definitive answer to my question.”
Archie stood up, ambled out the door of the suite, and returned in a few minutes. “We have arranged for you to see the avians for yourself later on today during our journey back to your friends,” he said. “As for the other species, two of the eggs have just completed germination and are in the infant myrmicat stage. Their development is being closely monitored on the other side of our domain and it is not possible for you to visit them.”
Richard’s face brightened. ‘Two of them germinated! How did you accomplish that?”
“Eggs of the sessile species must be placed in a thermally controlled liquid for a month of your time before the embryonic development process will even begin,” Ellie interpreted Archie’s colors very slowly. ‘The temperature must be maintained within an extremely small range, less than a degree by your measures, at the same value that is optimal for the myrmicat manifestation of the species. Otherwise the growth and development process does not occur.”
Richard was on his feet. “So that’s the secret,” he said, nearly shouting. “Dammit, I should have figured it out. I certainly had plenty of clues, both from the conditions inside their habitat and those murals they showed me.” He began to pace around the room. “But how did the octospiders know?” he said, with his back to Archie.
Archie replied quickly after Ellie’s translation. “We had information from the other octospider colony. Their records explained the entire metamorphosis of the sessiles.”
It seemed too simple to Richard. He suspected that maybe their alien colleague was not telling him the whole truth. Richard was ready to ask some more questions when Dr. Blue came into the suite, followed by three other octospiders, two of whom were carrying a large hexagonal object wrapped in a paperlike material.
“What’s this?” Richard asked.
“This is — bur official farewell party,” Ellie answered. ‘Together with a present from the residents of the city.”
One of the new octos asked Ellie if all the humans could gather outside on the avenue for the departure ceremony. The humans picked up their belongings and walked through the hallway out into the brighter lights. Nicole was surprised by what she saw. Except for the octospiders who filed out of their suite behind them, the avenue was deserted. Even the colors of the gardens seemed more muted, as if they had somehow been temporarily brightened by all the surrounding activity two days earlier when Richard and Nicole had arrived.
“Where is everyone?” Nicole asked Ellie.
“It’s very quiet on purpose,” her daughter replied. “The octos didn’t want to overwhelm you again.”
The five octospiders arranged themselves in a line in the middle of the avenue, with the pyramid-shaped building directly behind them. The two octos on the right side balanced the hexagonal package between them. It was larger than they were. The four humans were lined up opposite the octospiders, just in front of the gates to the city. The octospider in the center, whom Ellie introduced as the “Chief Optimizer” (based on Archie’s description of the duties of the octospider leader), then stepped forward to speak.
The Chief Optimizer expressed its gratitude to Richard, Nicole, Ellie, and Eponine, including a personal note with each thank-you, and said that it hoped this brief interaction would be the “first of many” that would lead to more understanding between the two species. The octospider then indicated that Archie was going to return with the humans, not only so that the interaction could be continued and expanded, but also to demonstrate to the other humans that a mutual trust between the two species now existed.
During a brief pause Archie shuffled forward into the zone between the two lines and Ellie symbolically welcomed him to their traveling party. The two octos on the right then unveiled the present, which was a magnificent detailed painting of the sight that Richard and Nicole had seen at the moment of their entrance into the Emerald City. The painting was so lifelike that Nicole was momentarily stunned. A few moments later the humans all moved closer to the painting to study its details. All the weird creatures were in the picture, including the three royal blue undulators, whose two long, upright, knobby antennae thrust upward from a teeming body mass reminded Nicole how disoriented she had been the previous day.
As she examined the painting and wondered how it could have been created, Nicole recalled the near swoon that had accompanied her actual viewing of the scene. Was I having a premonition of danger then? she mused. Or was it something else? She glanced away from the painting and watched the octospiders talking among themselves. Perhaps it was an epiphany, she thought, an instant burst of recognition of something way beyond my understanding. Some force or power never before experienced by any human being. A chill ran down her back as
