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he was responding to me."
The Laagi turned and reached toward one of the nearby squonks, who
immediately stretched out his neck and held it there, while the Laagi vibrated
his arm above it, undoubtedly sending some kind of order in the same sort of
feather touches Jim had first believed were only a form of praise, when on
their first leaving the ship, Squonk had sought out a particular Laagi for
what Jim had then thought was only attention. Now Jim suspected that the faint
touches of the vibrating Laagi arm were used far more to order than to praise.
In fact, their most common use, he now strongly suspected, was to make a major
alteration in the current work orders under which a squonk had been operating,
and to put it on an entirely new job.
The Laagi waded out of the crowd of squonks and returned to his group. The
squonk he had touched dashed off. The other squonks continued to surround
Squonk, although they had now ceased to try to push his legs and head back
into his body and simply contented themselves with stroking all of his body
that was not protected by the shell on his back.
This stroking seemed to have at least a partial calming effect on Squonk,
although he still tried, erratically and feebly, to search any surface that
came within reach of his tentacles. The squonk that had left returned, riding
a sort of flat-bed truck or raft which floated just above the floor, held
there by some force, perhaps antigravity, perhaps something that merely
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repelled the floor's surface.
The other squonks coaxed and pushed Squonk up onto this raft and the squonk
which had brought it drove it off, with Squonk now trying to search the bed of
the raft.
They left the building, moved down one of the green pathways and through a
tangle of other, connecting paths into a hospital building. Here, the raft was
driven to a large, dormitory-like room Jim and Mary had not found in other
such hospitals they had visited, although they had never really searched any
of them in detail. Their destination now was a ward, plainly, for squonks
only. Long rows of rafts with unmoving squonks on them, like the one on which
Squonk was being carried, floated just above the floor of the room; and the
driver of their raft maneuvered it into position on the end of one row. The
driver then departed, leaving the raft there, with Squonk still mindlessly
searching the surface of the vehicle's platform.
Almost immediately another squonk appeared, carrying what looked like a
large piece of mosquito netting, and threw it over both Squonk and the raft.
Looking out through the meshes, which were so large and flimsy they barely
obscured the view, Jim noticed what he had been too concerned with Squonk to
notice before; and that was that a good share of the other vehicle-beds had
their occupants enclosed by similar nettings.
Almost immediately, the netting began to radiate a mild heat, and this
seemed to have a calming effect on Squonk. He pulled in his extendible body
parts, stood for a little while unmoving, then rolled over on his back and
abandoned wakefulness.
"He's asleep?" asked Mary. It was the first word she had said since Jim had
peremptorily shut her up in the discussion room.
"Yes," said Jim. "Which means we're all right for the present."
"Why only for the present?" Mary echoed.
"Because Squonk'll either die or get well," said Jim. "If he dies, we're
stuck in a dead body-and we've seen what they do with dead bodies here. We'll
probably end up in some trash pit or incinerator. I'll bet on the incinerator
rather than the pit."
"And if he lives?" Mary's voice was controlled and even.
"If he lives, I can imagine some Laagi checking up on what made him sick
enough to end up here. I've no idea how detailed the information might be that
a Laagi can get out of a squonk. Have you? But if the Laagi learns that all
this time, Squonk's been searching for something that's missing from
AndFriend, and that he's been getting his orders from a Laagi that's not there
in the flesh, what do you think's going to happen?"
I've no idea," said Mary, still levelly. "But I imagine nothing good-for us.
You were right and I was wrong about overworking Squonk. Aside from that,
everything I said earlier still goes. And now, since there's nothing much for
me to observe here, and because I really could use some sleep right now, I'm
going to fold up. Wake me if you need me."
She stopped talking, and a moment later Jim felt sure that he was once more
picking up the mental signals from her that indicated she was truly
slumbering.
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He himself was wide awake with no desire to sleep at all. It was strange to
be so alert, while his two companions were out of it, so to speak. They were
asleep, around him all the other invalid squonks were asleep and no squonk
attendants were in the room. He was literally alone with his thoughts.
He let them run free, accordingly. They flitted from speculation over how
long Squonk would take to get rested, and how long Mary would take to rest up;
and ended up speculating about things he and she had observed in their
exploration of this Laagi city. Eventually, they ended up in speculation about
the Laagi themselves.
There was something driving the Laagi, as a race, Jim thought. They were
concerned with something more than just survival and increasing their
population by settling more worlds. Perhaps, he thought, they had some sort of
racial vision, some sort of dream that was strong enough to drive them
all-perhaps strong enough to drive them forever.
They were too advanced, too civilized, not to be headed somewhere. The war
with the human race, the endless work, all that was a product of the older
part of their brains. But there was more to them than those obvious things.
Both he and Mary had come to feel that the rooms in which many Laagi sat and
observed one of their number apparently in conversation with the picture of
another Laagi on a screen, as well as the "clubs" where they gathered and
communicated in anything from pairs up to small groups, had to do with
learning and decision-making; and almost surely, if those first two were
present activities, with speculation as well.
Like humans they must wonder where it all led to, and what was the right way
to go. And if they attacked that question with the relentless effort they
brought to everything else they did, they could have made admirable progress,
even by this time, possibly in some ways humanity had not even considered.
He found himself admitting to himself that he had come to admire the Laagi
in certain ways, just as he had come to admire Squonk in some of the attitudes
and efforts which that little creature showed. Mary was right. He and she must
observe and deduce and come to understand this alien race. Just as
technologically-advanced races on Earth had at first been blind to what could
be learned from races who appeared technologically backward until they began
to learn better in the twentieth century, so it would be easy now to be blind
to what the Laagi must have discovered and put to use that humanity had not
even imagined.
Whatever the Laagi were, they had things to teach us....
Somewhere along the way with that thought, Jim himself fell asleep. He
continued to sleep and think, alternately, as time passed and he waited for
Mary and Squonk to recover.
After all, there was nothing else he could do. There was no possibility in
any case of going anywhere without Squonk, and Squonk was clearly in no shape
to move. They all waited, therefore, for the better part of two days.
Once a day, as closely as Jim could figure time here, one of the squonks who
acted as attendant in the ward would come around with a container filled with
pink cubes about the size of a child's toy block.
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