own face. A stream of warm damp breath poured from the breathing vents.
“Er . . .”
One of the tractamorphic arms curved up, the tip formshifting into the shape of a human hand—slightly too large.
“Well, say hello, then,” Ione said; she had walked up to stand behind him.
“I’ll get you for this, Saldana.”
She giggled. “Joshua, this is my girlfriend, Haile. Haile, this is Joshua.”
Why has he so much stiffness?haile asked.
Ione cracked up, nearly doubling over as she laughed. Joshua gave her a furious glare.
Not want to shake hands? Not want to initiate human greetings ritual? Not want to be friends? the kiint sounded mournfully disappointed.
“Joshua, shake hands. Haile’s upset you don’t want to be friends with her.”
“How do you know?” he asked out of the corner of his mouth.
“Affinity. The Kiint can use it.”
He put his hand up. Haile’s arm reached out, and he felt a dry, slightly scaly, bud of flesh flow softly around his fingers. It tickled. His neural nanonics were executing a priority search through the xenoc files he had stored in a memory cell. The Kiint could hear.
“May your thoughts always fly high, Haile,” he said, and gave a slight formal bow.
I have much likening for him!
Ione gave him a calculating stare. I might have known that charm of his would work on xenocs too, she thought.
Joshua felt the Kiint’s flesh deliver a warm squeeze to his hand, then the pseudo-hand peeled back. The itchy sensation it left in his palm seemed to spread up along his spine and into his skull.
“Your new girlfriend,” he said heavily.
Ione smiled. “Haile was born a few weeks ago. And boy, does she grow fast.”
Haile started to push Ione towards the water, flat triangular head butting the girl spiritedly, beak flapping. One of her tractamorphic arms beckoned avidly at Joshua.
He grinned. “I’m coming.” His scalp felt as if he’d been in the sun too long, an all-over tingle.
“The water eases her skin while she’s growing,” Ione said as she skipped ahead of the eager Kiint. “She needs to bathe two or three times a day. All the Kiint houses have interior pools. But she loves the beach.”
“Well, I’ll be happy to help scrub her while I’m here.”
Much gratitude.
“My pleasure,” Joshua said. He stopped. Haile was standing at the edge of the water, big eyes regarding him attentively. “That was you.”
Yes.
“What was?” Ione asked, she looked from one to the other.
“I can hear her.”
“But you don’t have an affinity gene,” she said, surprised, and maybe a little indignant.
Joshua has thoughts of strength. Much difficulty to effect interlocution, but possible. Not so with most humans. Feel hopelessness. Failure sorrow.
He swaggered. “Strong thoughts, see?”
“Haile hasn’t quite mastered our language, that’s all,” Ione smiled with menace. “She’s confused strength with simplicity. You have very elementary thoughts.”
Joshua rubbed his hands together determinedly, and walked towards her. Ione backed away, then turned and ran giggling into the water. He caught her after six metres, and the two of them fell into the small clear ripples whooping and laughing. Haile plunged in after them.
Much joyness. Much joyness.
Joshua was interested by how well the young Kiint could swim. He would have considered her body too heavy to float, but she could move at a fair speed; her tractamorphic arms spread out into flippers, and angled back along her flanks. Ione wouldn’t let her go out to the little island, saying it was still too far, which ruling Haile accepted with rebellious sulks.
I have seen some of the all-around’s park space,she told Joshua proudly as he rubbed the dorsal ridge above her rump. Ione has shown me. So much to absorb. Adventureness fun. Envy Joshua.
Joshua didn’t quite understand how to collect his thoughts into a voice Haile could understand, instead he simply spoke. “You envy me? Why?”
Venture as you please. Fly to stars so distant. Welcome sights so strange. I want this, muchness!
“I don’t think you’d fit in the
Sadness. Anger. Frustration. I may not venture beyond adult defined constraints. Much growth before I can.
“Bumming round the universe isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Most of the Confederation planets are pretty tame, and travelling on a starship is boring; dangerous too.”
Danger? Excitement query?
Joshua moved down towards Haile’s flexible neck. Ione was grinning at him over the xenoc’s white back.
“No, not excitement. There’s a danger of mechanical failure. That can be fatal.”
You have excitement. Achievement. Ione narrated many voyages you have undertaken. Triumph in Ruin Ring. Much gratification. Such boldness exhibited.
Ione turned her giggle into a cough. You’re a flirt, girl.
Incorrect access mode to human males, query? Praise of character, followed by dumb admiration for feats; your instruction.
Yes, I did say that, didn’t I. Perhaps not quite so literally, though.
“That was a while ago now,” Joshua said. “Of course, life was pretty tricky in those days. One wrong move and it could have been catastrophic. The Ruin Ring is an ugly place. You’ve gotta have determination to be a scavenger. It’s a lonely existence. Not everyone can take it.”
You achieved legend status. Most famous scavenger of all.
Don’t push it,ione warned.
“You mean the Laymil electronics stack? Yeah, it was a big find, I earned a lot of money from that one.”
Much cultural relevance.
“Oh, yeah, that too.”
Ione stopped rubbing Haile’s neck and frowned. “Joshua, haven’t you accessed the records we’ve been decoding?”
“Er, what records?”
“Your electronics stack stored Laymil sensevise recordings. We’ve uncovered huge amounts of data on their culture.”
“Great. That’s good news.”
She eyed him suspiciously. “They were extremely advanced biologically. Well ahead of us on the evolutionary scale; they were almost completely in harmony with their habitat environment, so now we have to question just how artificial their habitats were. Their entire biology, the way they approached living organisms, is very different to our own perception. They revered any living entity. And their psychology is almost incomprehensible to us; they could be both highly individual, and at the same time submerge themselves into a kind of mental homogeneity. Two almost completely different states of consciousness. We think they may have been genuine telepaths. The research project geneticists are having furious arguments over the relevant gene sequence. It is similar to the Edenist affinity gene, but the Laymil psychology complements it in a way which is impossible to human Edenist culture. Edenists retain a core of identity even after they transfer their memories into the habitat personality at death, whereas the Laymil willingness to share their most private selves has to be the
