wondered if it might not be a word adopted from another language. What if it meant 'enemy'?"
"I don't see where this is leading," Stetson said.
"It is leading us to the Delphinus."
"That . . . that word told you where the Delphinus was?"
"No, but it fitted the creature pattern of the Gienahns. I'd felt from our first contact that the Gienahns might have a culture similar to that of the Indians on ancient Terra."
"You mean with castes and devil worship, that sort of thing?"
"Not those Indians. The Amerinds, the aborigines of wilderness America."
"What made you suspect this?"
"They came at me like a primitive raiding party. The leader dropped right onto the rotor hood of my sled. It was an act of bravery, nothing less than counting coup."
"Counting what?"
"Challenging me in a way that put the challenger in immediate peril. Making me look silly."
"I'm not tracking on this, Orne."
"Be patient; we'll get there."
"To how you learned where they'd secreted the Delphinus?"
"Of course. You see, this leader, this Tanub identified himself immediately as High Path Chief. That wasn't on our translation list either. But it was easy: Raider Chief. There's a word in almost every language in our history to mean, 'raider' and deriving from a word for road or path or highway."
"Highwayman," Stetson said.
"'Raid' itself," Orne said. "It's a corruption of an ancient human word for road."
"Yeah, yeah, but where'd all this . . ."
"We're almost home, Stet. Now, what'd we know about them at this point?
Glassblowing culture. Everything pointed to the assumption that they were recently emerged from the primitive. They played into our hands then by telling us how vulnerable their species survival was -- dependent upon the high city in the sunlight."
"Yeah, we got that up here. It meant we could control them."
"Control's a bad word, Stet. But we'll skip it for now. You want to know about the clues in their animal shape, their language and all the rest of it.
Very well: Tanub said their moon was Chiranachuruso. Translation: 'The Limb of Victory.' When I had that, it all fell into place."
"I don't see how."
"The vertical slit pupils of their eyes."
"What's that mean?"
"It means night-hunting predator accustomed to dropping upon its prey from above. No other type of creature has ever had the vertical slit in its light sensors. And Tanub said the Delphinus was hidden in the best place in all of their history. For that to track, the hiding place had to be somewhere high, very high. Likewise, dark. Put it together: a high place on the dark side of Chiranachuruso, on 'The Limb of Victory.'"
"I'm a pie-eyed greepus," Stetson whispered.
Orne grinned at him. "I won't agree with you . . . sir. The way I feel right now, if I said it, you might turn into a greepus. I've had enough nonhuman associates for a while."
"It is by death that life is known," the Abbod said. "Without the eternal presence of death there can be no awareness, no ascendancy of consciousness, no withdrawal from the gridded symbols into the void-without-background."
-- ROYALI's Religion for Everyone, conversations with the Abbod They called it the Sheleb Incident, Stetson noted, and were happy that the I-A suffered only one casualty. He thought of this as his scout cruiser brought the one casualty back to Marak. A conversation with the casualty kept coming back to him.
"Senior fieldmen last about half as long as the juniors. Very high mortality."
Stetson uttered a convoluted Prjado curse.
The medics said there was no hope of saving the field agent rescued from Sheleb. The man was alive only by an extremely limited definition. The life and the definition depended entirely upon the womblike crechepod which had taken over most of his vital functions.
Stetson's ship stood starkly in the morning light of Marak Central/Medical Receiving, the casualty still aboard waiting for hospital pickup.
A label on the crechepod identified the disrupted flesh inside as having belonged
"I don't see where this is leading," Stetson said.
"It is leading us to the Delphinus."
"That . . . that word told you where the Delphinus was?"
"No, but it fitted the creature pattern of the Gienahns. I'd felt from our first contact that the Gienahns might have a culture similar to that of the Indians on ancient Terra."
"You mean with castes and devil worship, that sort of thing?"
"Not those Indians. The Amerinds, the aborigines of wilderness America."
"What made you suspect this?"
"They came at me like a primitive raiding party. The leader dropped right onto the rotor hood of my sled. It was an act of bravery, nothing less than counting coup."
"Counting what?"
"Challenging me in a way that put the challenger in immediate peril. Making me look silly."
"I'm not tracking on this, Orne."
"Be patient; we'll get there."
"To how you learned where they'd secreted the Delphinus?"
"Of course. You see, this leader, this Tanub identified himself immediately as High Path Chief. That wasn't on our translation list either. But it was easy: Raider Chief. There's a word in almost every language in our history to mean, 'raider' and deriving from a word for road or path or highway."
"Highwayman," Stetson said.
"'Raid' itself," Orne said. "It's a corruption of an ancient human word for road."
"Yeah, yeah, but where'd all this . . ."
"We're almost home, Stet. Now, what'd we know about them at this point?
Glassblowing culture. Everything pointed to the assumption that they were recently emerged from the primitive. They played into our hands then by telling us how vulnerable their species survival was -- dependent upon the high city in the sunlight."
"Yeah, we got that up here. It meant we could control them."
"Control's a bad word, Stet. But we'll skip it for now. You want to know about the clues in their animal shape, their language and all the rest of it.
Very well: Tanub said their moon was Chiranachuruso. Translation: 'The Limb of Victory.' When I had that, it all fell into place."
"I don't see how."
"The vertical slit pupils of their eyes."
"What's that mean?"
"It means night-hunting predator accustomed to dropping upon its prey from above. No other type of creature has ever had the vertical slit in its light sensors. And Tanub said the Delphinus was hidden in the best place in all of their history. For that to track, the hiding place had to be somewhere high, very high. Likewise, dark. Put it together: a high place on the dark side of Chiranachuruso, on 'The Limb of Victory.'"
"I'm a pie-eyed greepus," Stetson whispered.
Orne grinned at him. "I won't agree with you . . . sir. The way I feel right now, if I said it, you might turn into a greepus. I've had enough nonhuman associates for a while."
"It is by death that life is known," the Abbod said. "Without the eternal presence of death there can be no awareness, no ascendancy of consciousness, no withdrawal from the gridded symbols into the void-without-background."
-- ROYALI's Religion for Everyone, conversations with the Abbod They called it the Sheleb Incident, Stetson noted, and were happy that the I-A suffered only one casualty. He thought of this as his scout cruiser brought the one casualty back to Marak. A conversation with the casualty kept coming back to him.
"Senior fieldmen last about half as long as the juniors. Very high mortality."
Stetson uttered a convoluted Prjado curse.
The medics said there was no hope of saving the field agent rescued from Sheleb. The man was alive only by an extremely limited definition. The life and the definition depended entirely upon the womblike crechepod which had taken over most of his vital functions.
Stetson's ship stood starkly in the morning light of Marak Central/Medical Receiving, the casualty still aboard waiting for hospital pickup.
A label on the crechepod identified the disrupted flesh inside as having belonged
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