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r r
Hugging the edge of the bluff, he started down the beach.
The large, exposed granite boulders that dotted the southern portion of the berm provided
him with ample cover as he tracked the anomalous pair. He expected them to stop
anytime. There was no reason for Halstead to hike very far down the shore. Dozens of new
discoveries were to be found within every meter.
But they kept going, piquing the senior scientist's curiosity still further. Was she guiding
him? Was there a secret place where Halstead was carrying out the special research
Lejardin and the others suspected him of? Simna didn't for a moment anticipate a replay
of the captain's unhappy confrontation. Halstead was far too intelligent to risk anything so
chancy. If such thoughts had entered his mind, there was the everyday example of the
mumbling Lastwell to remind him of where such misguided bravado could lead.
Unique arthropods and other creatures deserving of investigation peeked out at him from
holes and burrows in the bluff. It took an effort to ignore them and concentrate on his
patient pursuit. They would be there for him to examine or collect on the way back.
Whenever the opportunity to take a longer look at the couple presented itself, Simna tried
to identify Halstead's Xican companion, but try as he might he couldn't place her. The
Xicans did not possess a great many distinguishing external characteristics. Not in their
present, learned hu-manoid form, anyway. Old Cone might have done it, but Simna wasn't
that proficient.
Tired and thirsty, with his canteen back in his pack, he was just about to give up on the
tracking when the objects of his interest suddenly halted. With his glasses turned to full
magnification he stared as the Pendju turned to face Halstead and put both flexible arms
around his waist. Simna froze.
Far from rejecting the embrace, Halstead responded in kind. Bending over to
accommodate the Xican's slighter
. stature, he kissed it. That in itself was astonishing. What was more remarkable still was
that it appeared to kiss him back.
When confronted by the inexplicable, Simna was invariably able to assume a wholly
objective and analytical position. Apparently Old Cone wasn't the only one capable of
volunteering complex instruction to the Xicans. Was this what Lastwell had experienced?
The captain had proved less than voluble about the matter.
Halstead seemed to be tolerating the experience rather better. He appeared not only at
ease but familiar with the methodology.
The kiss lingered. Simna was at once enthralled and repulsed. What, for example, would a
Xican tongue feel like? Would it be as humanoid as the rest of the acquired configuration,
or entirely different under such incongruous circumstances? Would a Xican mouth and
lips be warm or cold to the touch? What sensations could result from a thixotropical tease?
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r r
As he stared, the two of them lay down side by side, not bothering to see if they were alone.
Doubtless experience assured them they were, he thought. There was no reason for anyone
to be this far down the beach. In spite of his scientific detachment he felt a certain twinge
of guilt. There was no reason for it, he knew. His continuing observations were entirely
consistent with the best guidelines for biological research.
He fingered his recorder. Though not as large or elaborate as the one Halstead always
carried with him, it was still a very sophisticated instrument. Certainly it was adequate to
the moment. He fumbled with the strap, and then his fingers fell away. There were some
things it was better to record with one's eyes and mind.
Would Halstead be embarrassed if his secret were to be revealed? Judging from the
familiarity with which they pro-gressed, this was obviously not the first such tryst or
rendezvous. Human and Pendju knew one another well. Simna wondered how long it had
been going on. It certainly explained Halstead's fondness for solo forays into the woods
and elsewhere. The information he brought back from such solitary expeditions was
always valuable, the specimens easily the equal of those acquired by his colleagues.
He simply wasn't being forthcoming about his preeminent discovery, Simna reflected.
The actual details were not particularly revelatory. Certainly he saw nothing of sufficient
magnitude to explain what had happened to the unfortunate Lastwell.
And then the Pendju began to change.
Even with the glasses it was difficult to be precise about details at that distance. Design-a-
female, Simna found himself thinking. Indulge in physical as well as mental compliance
with your fondest dreams. No wonder Old Cone was so protective of his primitive charges.
Such thoughts were impossible to avoid as he watched human and Xican making love.
Halstead didn't change, of course, and the Pendju could only catalyze her outer form, but
that was enough. Organs could not transmute, but they could stretch and twist to
accommodate a different external alignment. Muscles could elongate or contract. Not that
Halstead was embarked on any ride so radical. If this was akin to the experience Last-well
had endured, he mused, that must have been very different from what he was presently
witnessing.
How else could the natives mutate, he wondered? If provoked, did they possess a defensive
mode, like a Puffball? Could they also inflate and explode, driving poison into their
adversary? Nothing of the sort had happened to Last-well. He suffered from a malady
more subtle.
Because of their ability to exercise conscious, intelligent control over their thixotropic
talents, of all Xican life forms only the humanoid natives had the ability to teach their
bodies
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r r
" new tricks. Or be taught, he decided as he watched Halstead. Could they-jeaTmT hostile
as well as compliant shapes? With this possibility in mind, the seasonal war-play between
the Pendju and the Quwanga took on a far more sinister aspect.
How did the tractable Pendju female see such encounters? Were her maneuvers defensive, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]