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experiment actually. The Hard One to whom Tritt had spoken was agreeing; the other still exuded
concern.
Dua was not paying attention to them only. She was looking at Tritt.
The first Hard One said, "Where is the food-ball now, Tritt?"
Tritt showed them.
It was hidden effectively and the connections were clumsy but serviceable.
The Hard One said,"Did you do this yourself, Tritt?"
"Yes, Hard-sir."
"How did you know how?"
"I looked at how it was done in the Hard-caverns. I did it exactly the way I saw it done there."
"Didn't you know you might have harmed your mid-mate?"
"Ididn't. Iwouldn't. I " Tritt seemed unable to speak for a moment. Then he said, "It was not to hurt
her. It was to feed her. I let it pour into her feeder and I decorated her feeder. I wanted her to try it and
she did. She ate! Forthe first time in a long while she ate well. We melted." He paused, then said in a
huge, tumultuous cry. "She had enough energy at last to initiate a baby-Emotional. She took Odeen's
seed and passed it to me. I have it growing inside me. A baby-Emotional is growing inside me."
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Dua could not speak. She stumbled back and then rushed for the door in so pell-mell a fashion that the
Hard Ones could not get out of the way in time. She struck the appendage of the one in front, passing
deep into it, and then pulled free with a harsh sound.
The Hard One's appendage fell limp and his expression seemed contorted with pain. Odeen tried to
dodge around him to follow Dua, but the Hard One said, with apparent difficulty. "Let her go for now.
There is enough harm done. We will take care."
4b
Odeen found himself living through a nightmare. Dua was gone. The Hard Ones were gone. OnlyTritt
was still there; silent
How could it have happened, Odeen thought in tortured fashion. How could Tritt have found his way
alone to the Hard-caverns? How could he have taken a storage battery charged at the Positron Pump
and designed to yield radiation in much more concentrated form than Sunlight and dared
Odeen would not have had the courage to chance it. How could Tritt; stumbling, ignorant Tritt? Or was
he unusual, too? Odeen, the clever Rational; Dua, the curious Emotional; and Tritt, the daring Parental?
He said, "How could you do it, Tritt?"
Tritt retorted hotly. "What did I do? I fed her. I fed her better than she had ever been fed before. Now
we have a baby-Emotional initiated at last. Haven't we waited longenough? We would have waited
forever, if we had waited for Dua."
"But don't you understand, Tritt? You might have hurt her. It wasn't ordinary Sunlight. It was an
experimental radiational source that could have been too concentrated to be safe."
"I don't understand what you're saying, Odeen. How could it do harm? I tasted the kind of food the
Hard Ones made before. It tasted bad. You've tasted it, too. It tasted just awful and it never hurt us. It
tasted so bad, Dua wouldn't touch it. Then I came on the food-ball. It tastedgood. I ate some and it was
delicious. How can anything delicious hurt. You see, Dua ate it. She liked it. And it started the
baby-Emotional. How can I have done wrong?"
Odeen despaired of explaining. He said, "Dua is going to be very angry."
"She'll get over it"
"I wonder. Tritt, she's not like ordinary Emotionals. That's what makes her so hard to live with, but so
wonderful when wecan live with her. She may never want to melt with us again."
Tritt's outline was sturdily plane-surfaced. Then he said, "Well, what of it?"
"Whatof it?You ask. Do you want to give up melting?"
"No, but if she won't she won't. I have my third baby and I don't care any more. I know all about the
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Soft Ones in the old days. They used to have two triad-births sometimes. But I don't care. One is
plenty."
"But, Tritt, babies aren't all there is to melting."
"What else? I heard you say once you learned faster after you melted. Then learn slower. I don't care. I
have my third baby."
Odeen turned away, trembling, and flowed jerkily out of the chamber. What was the use of scolding
Tritt? Tritt wouldn't understand. He wasn't sure he understood himself.
Once the third baby was born, and grown a little, surely there would come a time to pass on. It would
be he,Odeen, who would have to give the signal, who would have to say when, and it would have to be
done without fear. Anything else would be disgrace, or worse, and yet he could not face it without
melting, even now that all three children would have been formed.
Melting, somehow, would eliminate the fear.... Maybe it was because melting was like passing on. There
was a period of time when you were not conscious, yet it did not hurt. It was like not existing and yet it
was desirable. With enough melting, he could gain the courage to pass on without fear and without
Oh, Sun and all the stars, it wasn't "passing on." Why use that phrase so solemnly? He knew the other
word that was never used except by children who wanted to shock their elders somehow. It wasdying.
He had to get ready to die without fear, and to have Dua and Tritt die with him.
And he didn't know how.... Not without melting...
4c
Tritt remained alone in the room, frightened, frightened, but sturdily resolved to remain unmoved. He had
his third baby. He could feel it within.
That was what counted.
That was all that counted.
Yet why, then, deep inside, did he have a stubborn faint feeling that itwasn't all that counted?
5a
Dua was ashamed almost beyond endurance. It took a long time for her to battle down that shame;
battle it down enough to give herself room to think. She had hastened hastened moving blindly out
and away from the horror of the home-cavern; scarcely caring that she did not know where she was
going or even where she was,
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It was night, when no decent Soft One would be on the surface, not even the most frivolous Emotional.
And it would be a considerable time before the Sun rose. Dua was glad. The Sun was food and at the
moment, shehated food and what had been done to her.
It was cold, too, but Dua was only distantly aware of it Why should she care about cold, she thought, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]