return to me here. Leave.”
Ambalasei waited until her assistant was well out of sight before she bent and unwrapped the cloak from about the male’s legs. With a light touch she probed his swollen pouch, then carefully opened the loose lips of the sac and peered within.
“So!” she said, dropping back onto her tail with amazement. “Explanation by observation. Four young there, possibly five at the most. Normally fifteen to thirty eggs. Much thought required for explanation of significance.” There was a sudden splashing from the lake and she looked up to see tiny heads breathing at the surface, quickly sinking back below. “And that will require thought as well. There is an efenburu of young already in the water. What is to be done with them?”
She was still sitting frozen in thought when Setessei returned, was hard to rouse so intense was her concentration. Eventually she blinked in awareness of sound and motion and turned to her assistant.
“Five eggs, not thirty, that is the difference. Numbers, numbers.”
“Communication received, understanding/comprehension missing.”
“Survival of the species, that is what it is. Our males may not appreciate it, but once to the beaches suffices as far as the species is concerned. What matters if they die — if thirty eggs hatch out? It matters not at all. But these Sorogetso carry only four or five eggs. They must go to the beaches six or seven times to equal our once. No wonder they are conscious and not torpid! They have to live to return again and again. Which gives them social equality, perhaps even superiority. This will bear much more consideration and thought.” Her attention returned to the present and she realized that Setessei was standing patiently before her. “You have searched well? There are none in hiding?”
“None. I will look again, go over the same ground, but I am sure that we have rendered them all unconscious.”
“Excellent. Return at once to the boat. I follow at a more leisurely pace. You and the crewmember there will start carrying the Sorogetso to the beach. I shall go to the uruketo and send others to help you. After I tell the commander what must be done. She will be pleased to cooperate in important labors once I have explained matters to her.”
Elem was not only less than pleased, she was shocked into immobility. “Lack of comprehension,” she said, her meaning muffled by her rigidity. “Sorogetso to be moved from this place? Why do they want to do that?”
“It is not their desire but mine. At present all lie unconscious so permission for move not needed.”
“Unconscious…”
“Elem! Your confusion of thought, inability to comprehend is annoying me. Explanation in detail. All of the Sorogetso now await removal from here. Instruct your crewmembers to go to the beach, to place them into the boat, to bring them to this uruketo and then to place them securely inside. Understand? Good. When they are all aboard we will take them upriver to a place I have chosen where they can live without disturbance of culture, interference with natural system.”
“But, great Ambalasei, more clarification desired. Is not the removal of them from their natural habitat a disturbance of major importance?”
“No. Firstly I do not believe this is their natural habitat. What was done once can be done again. More important — they will be safely out of reach of interference by Daughters of Disruption. Your companions have brought nothing but ill to the Sorogetso. It shall not happen again. Any more questions?”
“Many…”
“Then frame them in your mind while the Sorogetso are being brought aboard. That is my order. Do you obey it?”
Elem hesitated only an instant before she joined her thumbs in the sign of obedience to authority, then turned to call orders up to the crewmember on the fin.
The crewmembers, disciplined by their long service in the uruketo, now reinforced by obedience to Ugunenapsa’s seventh principle, did as they were ordered. While the loading took place Ambalasei and Setessei once more quartered the island, and the surrounding area frequented by the Sorogetso, but found no one. Their sweep had been complete. When the last of the limp bodies had been loaded aboard Ambalasei ordered that the area be searched carefully, that all artifacts and objects of any nature that belonged to the Sorogetso be taken as well. There were gourds for water, cages containing deadly spiders, bright stones in woven bags, as well as other objects of uncertain usage. All were brought. Only the dried grass nests they slept in were left; they could be replaced easily enough. By late afternoon the uruketo had struggled back out of the shallows and was following the leaping enteesenat upstream. Ambalasei stood at the top of the fin, enjoying her ease after the labors of the day. It had been hard work, but well worth it. She turned at the sound of attention to speaking to see that the commander had joined her.
“Well done, Elem,” she said. “A notable contribution to the future welfare of these simple creatures.”
“How long will they stay like this?”
“Until they are injected and awakened. You need have no fear of violence or aggression. Now — information required. You will do as always this night? That is you will let the uruketo drift in the shallows until dawn?”
“As always in the river.”
“Excellent. At dawn then I will be awakened and with Setessei’s assistance will direct the creature’s progress. None will join me, none will climb this fin.”
“I do not understand.”
Ambalasei signed weakness of intelligence. “I thought that my meaning was obvious. Under my instruction Setessei shall direct this creature to the beach where we will land. Since one stretch of river looks very much like another, particularly to the inattentive Daughters of your crew, none but my assistant and I shall know where the Sorogetso were brought ashore. Will you be able to recognize the landing site?”
“I am sure I will, but…”
“Then you will remain below. I know that you are a treetrunk of strength, commander, and a good scientist. But some day I will be gone from this part of the world and I force myself to remember that you are a firm follower of Ugunenapsa. If asked for information in her name I am sure that you would give it. I cannot take that chance. The Sorogetso must remain undisturbed by any future incursions into their well-being. Now, tell me, will my instructions be followed?”
Elem signed confusion of desires. “I am a follower of science, just as you are, great Ambalasei. Thinking as you do I agree that matters must be arranged just as you have ordered. Yet I am also a believer in the wisdom of Ugunenapsa and I must reconcile these two.”
“Easily done. Think only of Ugunenapsa’s third principle and your thoughts will be clear, your commands obvious. Did Ugunenapsa not say that the spirit of life, Efeneleiaa, is the great eistaa of the city of life, that we are citizens and beings in this city? This must include the Sorogetso. So while they will be going to a new and physical city on this river they will still be residing in the greater city of life. As Ugunenapsa said. Is that not right?”
Elem still hesitated. “I think that it sounds right, certainly that is what Ugunenapsa said and I thank you for reminding me of it. And I am humbled that even though you are not a Daughter of Life you know so much of Ugunenapsa’s thoughts that you correct me in my misjudgment. You are right, of course, and your orders will be obeyed.”
It was not that Vainte wished to issue commands to the fargi, it just seemed to have become part of the natural order. If Velikrei had any resentment that her place had been taken by Vainte she gave no indication of it. Quite the opposite in fact. She stayed at Vainte’s side, stretching her limited comprehension to understand Vainte’s instructions. She brought the tastiest of the freshly caught fish to her, watched with pleasure while she ate, did not eat herself until Vainte had finished. It was the natural order of things. Some are destined to give orders, others to obey.
Not that any real thought was needed to command this elderly efenburu. Fishing was the only thing that they did in common; they were all certainly skilled enough in that. When they entered the sea they moved apart, swimming slowly. If a school of fish were seen this fact was remarked upon with the simplest of signals, passed from one to the other and eventually to Vainte. She would swim in the indicated direction, decide if the school were big enough, the fish of edible interest. If they were she signed attack and they moved in a familiar and reassuring fashion.
When not fishing they did not communicate. When thirsty they drank. When chilled they sought the sun. Like
